Ice-solid-Earth feedbacks influenced ice-dynamics along the Siple Coast on a multi-millennial timescale trajectory during the Holocene (11,700 years ago).
Aim: Understand grounding line dynamics along the Siple Coast margin of WAIS between the last glacial maximum and recent time.
Currently, nearly 40% of WAIS discharges through fast flowing ice streams along the Siple Coast, in the region of the Kamb Ice Sheet and Crary Ice Rise. Over decadal, centennial and millennial timescales the velocity of these ice streams has been highly variable and the evolution of these dynamically relevant topographic features is poorly understood and poorly represented in ice sheet models. A better understanding of the potential for bedrock topography and mantle viscosity to slow or reverse early Holocene grounding line retreat is fundamental to our capability to predict future ice sheet change and resultant sea-level rise.
Has there been significant ice-sheet re-advance in the Siple Coast area since the early Holocene?
When did the Kamb Ice Sheet and Crary Ice Rise unground, and when did Crary Ice Rise reground?
Was readvance driven by climatological and/or glaciological processes?
Can glacial isostatic adjustment halt ice retreat and cause re-advance?
Workshop Report: Sensitivity of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to +2 °C (SWAIS 2C)
The Sensitivity of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to a Warming of 2 ∘C (SWAIS 2C) Project aims to understand past and current drivers and thresholds of WAIS dynamics.