Offshore-onshore record of Last Glacial Maximum–to–present grounding line retreat at Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica

Nichols, Keir A.; Rood, Dylan H.; Venturelli, Ryan A.; Balco, Greg; Adams, Jonathan R.; Guillaume, Louise; Campbell, Seth; Goehring, Brent Marshall; Hall, Brenda L.; Wilcken, Klaus; Woodward, John; Johnson, Joanne S.

doi:10.1130/g51326.1

Offshore-onshore record of Last Glacial Maximum–to–present grounding line retreat at Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica

Journal Article · Thu Aug 17 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Geology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1130/g51326.1· OSTI ID:2340878

^[1]; Rood, Dylan H. ^[1]; Venturelli, Ryan A. ^[2]; Balco, Greg ^[3]; Adams, Jonathan R. ^[1]; Guillaume, Louise ^[1]; Campbell, Seth ^[4]; ^[5]; Hall, Brenda L. ^[4]; Wilcken, Klaus ^[6]; Woodward, John ^[7]; Johnson, Joanne S. ^[8]

Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA (United States)
University of Maine, Orono, ME (United States)
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Division
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), New South Wales (Australia)
Northumbria University, Newcastle (United Kingdom)
British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge (United Kingdom)

Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, is the largest Antarctic contributor to global sea-level rise and is vulnerable to rapid retreat, yet our knowledge of its deglacial history since the Last Glacial Maximum is based largely on marine sediments that record a retreat history ending in the early Holocene. Using a suite of ¹⁰Be exposure ages from onshore glacial deposits directly adjacent to Pine Island Glacier, we show that this major glacier thinned rapidly in the early to mid-Holocene. Our results indicate that Pine Island Glacier was at least 690 m thicker than present prior to ca. 8 ka. We infer that the rapid thinning detected at the site farthest downstream records the arrival and stabilization of the retreating grounding line at that site by 8–6 ka. By combining our exposure ages and the marine record, we extend knowledge of Pine Island Glacier retreat both spatially and temporally: to 50 km from the modern grounding line and to the mid-Holocene, providing a data set that is important for future numerical ice-sheet model validation.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO); National Science Foundation (NSF); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 2340878

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--23-24257

Journal Information:: Geology, Journal Name: Geology Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 51; ISSN 0091-7613

Publisher:: Geological Society of AmericaCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited By (1)

Cosmogenic Be-10 data and calculated surface exposure ages from nunataks adjacent to Pine Island Glacier in the Hudson Mountains, West Antarctica Nichols, Keir; Rood, Dylan; Wilcken, Klaus NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/9ddd50c8-cd08-4afe-b245-f6891f1d9a3f	dataset	January 2023

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Offshore-onshore record of Last Glacial Maximum–to–present grounding line retreat at Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica

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