Glaciology and geological signature of the Last Glacial Maximum Antarctic ice sheet

Published: Feb 1, 2014 by The PISM Authors


Title	Glaciology and geological signature of the Last Glacial Maximum Antarctic ice sheet
Authors	N. Golledge and 12 others
Venue	Quaternary Science Reviews

Continent-wide marine and terrestrial geological evidence constrains the dynamical configuration of the Antarctic ice sheet during the last, and possibly preceding, glacial maxima. This paper interprets results from a remarkably high-resolution (5 km) PISM model using this evidence, focussing on the basal thermal regime of the ice sheet, its flow pattern, variability in subglacial erosion and sediment transport, and how these characteristics evolve during glacial transitions. The results show that rapid basal sliding in discrete outlets eroded and advected sediment to the continental shelf primarily during the early stages of advance and retreat of the ice sheet. Sector-by-sector analysis of geologic constraints, exquisite figures showing sediment transport paths through tight geographic confinements, and careful consideration of peak erosion timing set a new standard for validating high-resolution time-dependent model results with extensive geophysical evidence.

A two-year PostDoc positions in ice sheet and Earth system modelling is available in the Ice Dynamics group, as part of the new Earth Resilience Science Unit (ERSU), at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Two PhD fellowship positions in ice sheet modelling are advertised at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.

The Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven, is offering a PhD position in the field of coupled ice sheet-ocean modelling. The core of the project is to run simulations with FESOM-PISM (a coupled ocean-ice shelf-ice sheet model with evolving cavity geometries) for different 21st-century climate projections to obtain well-constrained trajectories of future ice mass loss from the vast Antarctic Ice Sheet. Model results will feed into a fingerprinting method that considers the ocean response as well as gravitational effects and contributions from other sources. The final product will be a time series of global maps of regional sea-level variations that consider all of the most relevant processes.