Publication Date:
2018-03-14
Description:
The sensitivity of sea level to melting from polar ice sheets and glaciers during recent natural and
anthropogenic climate fluctuations is poorly constrained beyond the period of direct observation by satellite.
We have investigated glacial meltwater events during the Anthropocene by adapting the pioneering
approach of modeling trends in d18O in the pore waters of deep‐sea cores, previously used to constrain
the size of ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum. We show that during recent warm periods, meltwater
from glacier retreat drains into the coastal fjords, leaving a signature of depleted d18O values and low
Cl concentrations in the pore water profiles of rapidly accumulating sediments. Here we model such pore
water profiles in a piston core to constrain the timing and magnitude of an ice sheet retreat event at Caley
Glacier on the west Antarctic Peninsula, and the result is compared with local ice front movement. This
approach of pore water modeling was then applied in another kasten core and tested by a series of sensitivity
analyses. The results suggest that our approach may be applied in fjords of different sedimentary settings
to reconstruct the glacier history and allow insight into the sensitivity of polar glaciers to abrupt
warming events.
Type:
Article
,
PeerReviewed
Format:
text
DOI:
10.1029/2009GC002949
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