Climate models and projections of rising sea level will be improved by an investigation of how an ice sheet melted thousands of years ago, according to a recent study.
According to a paper published in Nature Communications, the mechanism for large-scale melting and retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet 9000 to 6,000 years ago is a major driver of melting events over the past 30 years.
The research team analyzed the samples from the Amundsen Sea.
Dr. Rebecca Totten is an assistant professor of geological sciences at the University of Arizona. The study found that earlier periods of atmospheric warming were important to the stability of major glaciers in the past.
The warm and moist air from an "atmospheric river" blowing over the ice sheet from the Pacific Ocean was triggered 11,000 years ago. A band of humid air has been observed over the South Pole, which has caused temperatures to rise 70 degrees higher than normal.
Climate scientists are focused on the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is experiencing drastic changes each season that signal its response to a changing climate, as its melting is a major contributor to global sea-level rise.
While attention has been focused on warm seawater flowing against the ice sheet, less is known about the causes of surface melting.
Totten searches for clues to the past ice behavior by looking through the mud for tiny plankton. Her team can inform models of how the ice sheet will behave in the future by studying what the ocean left behind.
She said that stepping back in time is similar to stepping back in time and seeing how the ocean and glaciers changed.
Totten and her students are looking for the remains of tiny, single-celled organisms that have been in the ocean for thousands of years. The species that were living at different times give clues about the water that nourished them.
According to Totten's work and the new chemical analysis at the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo, atmospheric warming melted major regions of WestAntarctica in the past due to warming through atmospheric rivers.
Predictable models of ice stability and global sea-level rise, which will impact populated coastal areas in Alabama and the northern Gulf of Mexico, will be provided with a full picture of the ice sheets' behavior in the past.
More information: Adam D. Sproson et al, Holocene melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet driven by tropical Pacific warming, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30076-2
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