A Model for Northern Hemisphere Continental Ice Sheet Variation

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.G. Johnson ◽  
B.T. McClure
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Orbital Eccentricity ◽  
West Greenland ◽  
Summer Insolation ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
West Greenland Current ◽  
Pack Ice

The marine record shows that over the last 350 ka Northern Hemisphere ice sheet volumes have fluctuated widely and only on rare short occasions have they been reduced to the present interglacial state. The fluctuations are well synchronized with hemispheric average summer insolation variations of 20 ka periodicity caused by changing orbital parameters. The development of a model which explains the varied amplitudes of the fluctuations and is consistent with the geological record embodies the following arguments: The transition from an interglacial state like today's to a glacial state is initiated when a summer insolation deficit causes a southerly extension of the North Atlantic-Arctic pack ice to 60°N latitude. The extension alters the subpolar low pressure patterns and thus causes a southward diversion of the European Gulf Stream flow. It also produces an enhanced warm West Greenland current. This current causes open seas as far north as Baffin Bay which provides moisture for rapid northern Laurentide ice sheet growth. After several glacial fluctuations driven by insolation variations, the southern Laurentide ice front may reach an extreme extension. This diverts the westerlies and the Gulf Stream thus weakening a dominant subpolar North Atlantic gyre and consequently producing a prolonged cutoff of the West Greenland current and a reduction of high latitude glacial precipitation. The subsequent high insolation can then melt back the eastern pack ice and restore the northern European Gulf Stream. This warms the high latitudes for a time sufficient to melt the continental ice, thus causing the transition back to the interglacial state.An analysis of the record in the context of model suggests that the threshold deficit in average summer insolation that is required to initiate major glacial growth is influenced by the cooling effect of the Greenland ice cap on the seas to the east. The threshold level under conditions like today's is found to lie between −7 and −17 ly/day relative to the present. This threshold will not be crossed for at least 54 millenia due to an interval of smaller orbital eccentricity. Probable melting of the Greenland ice cap about 30 ka AP would ensure the extension of the present interglacial beyond 120 ka AP.

scholarly journals Did North Atlantic cooling and freshening from 3.65–3.5 Ma precondition Northern Hemisphere ice sheet growth?

2020 ◽  
Vol 185 ◽  
pp. 103085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyrus Karas ◽  
Nabil Khélifi ◽  
André Bahr ◽  
B.D.A. Naafs ◽  
Dirk Nürnberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Ice Sheet

scholarly journals Glacier response to North Atlantic climate variability during the Holocene

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 2009-2036 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. L. Balascio ◽  
W. J. D'Andrea ◽  
R. S. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Variability ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
North Atlantic Ocean ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Summer Insolation ◽  
Geochemical Parameters

Abstract. Small glaciers and ice caps respond rapidly to climate variations and records of their past extent provide information on the natural envelope of past climate variability. Millennial-scale trends in Holocene glacier size are well documented and correspond with changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. However, there is only sparse and fragmentary evidence for higher frequency variations in glacier size because in many Northern Hemisphere regions glacier advances of the past few hundred years were the most extensive and destroyed the geomorphic evidence of ice growth and retreat during the past several thousand years. Thus, most glacier records have been of limited use for investigating centennial scale climate forcing and feedback mechanisms. Here we report a continuous record of glacier activity for the last 9.5 ka from southeast Greenland, derived from high-resolution measurements on a proglacial lake sediment sequence. Physical and geochemical parameters show that the glaciers responded to previously documented Northern Hemisphere climatic excursions, including the "8.2 ka" cooling event, the Holocene Thermal Maximum, Neoglacial cooling, and 20th Century warming. In addition, the sediments indicate centennial-scale oscillations in glacier size during the late Holocene. Beginning at 4.1 ka, a series of abrupt glacier advances occurred, each lasting ~100 years and followed by a period of retreat, that were superimposed on a gradual trend toward larger glacier size. Thus, while declining summer insolation caused long-term cooling and glacier expansions during the late Holocene, climate system dynamics resulted in repeated episodes of glacier expansion and retreat on multi-decadal to centennial timescales. These episodes coincided with ice rafting events in the North Atlantic Ocean and periods of regional ice cap expansion, which confirms their regional significance and indicates that considerable glacier activity on these timescales is a normal feature of the cryosphere. The data provide a longer-term perspective on the rate of 20th century glacier retreat and indicate that recent anthropogenic-driven warming has already impacted the regional cryosphere in a manner outside the natural range of Holocene variability.

scholarly journals Dynamics of ~100-kyr glacial cycles during the early Miocene

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 2741-2766
Author(s):  
D. Liebrand ◽  
L. J. Lourens ◽  
D. A. Hodell ◽  
B. de Boer ◽  
R. S. W. van de Wal
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Early Miocene ◽  
Glacial Cycles ◽  
Threshold Response ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
Eastern Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Record ◽  
Isotope Record

Abstract. Here, we present high-resolution stable isotope records from ODP Site 1264 in the South-Eastern Atlantic Ocean, which resolve the latest Oligocene to early Miocene (23.7–18.9 Ma) climate changes. Using an inverse modelling technique, we decomposed the oxygen isotope record into temperature and ice volume and found that the Antarctic ice sheet expanded during distinct episodes (e.g., Mi zones) of low short-term (~100-kyr) eccentricity forcing, which occur two to four long-term (400-kyr) eccentricity cycles apart. We argue that a~non-linear mechanism, such as the merging of (several) large East Antarctic ice sheets, caused the build-up of a larger ice sheet. During the termination phases of these larger ice sheets, on the contrary, we find a more linear response of ice-sheet variability to orbital forcing and climate became highly sensitive to the ~100-kyr eccentricity cycle. At the Oligocene-Miocene transition the model output indicates a decrease in Northern Hemisphere temperatures such that a small ice cap could develop on Greenland. This Supports the hypothesis of a threshold response for the development of Northern Hemisphere land ice to decreasing pCO2.

Oceanic Evidence for the Mechanism of Rapid Northern Hemisphere Glaciation

1980 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. F. Ruddiman ◽  
A. McIntyre ◽  
V. Niebler-Hunt ◽  
J. T. Durazzi
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
Local Source ◽  
The North ◽  
Land Mass ◽  
Oxygen Isotopic ◽  
The North Atlantic

AbstractThe oxygen isotopic stage 5/4 boundary in deep-sea sediments marks a prominent interval of northern hemisphere ice-sheet growth that lasted about 10,000 yr. During much of this rapid ice growth, the North Atlantic Ocean from at least 40°N to 60°N maintained warm sea-surface temperatures, within 1° to 2°C of today's subpolar ocean. This oceanic warmth provided a local source of moisture for ice-sheet accretion on the adjacent continents. The unusually strong thermal gradient off the east coast of North America (an “interglacial” ocean alongside a “glacial” land mass) also should have directed low-pressure storms from warm southern latitudes north-ward toward the Laurentide Ice Sheet. In addition, minimal calving of ice into the North Atlantic occurred during most of the stage 5/4 transition, indicative of ice retention within the continents. Diminished summer and autumn insolation, a warm subpolar ocean, and minimal calving of ice are conducive to rapid and extensive episodes of northern hemisphere ice-sheet growth.

scholarly journals The Palaeoproterozoic Nagssugtoqidian orogen in West Greenland: current status of work by the Danish Lithosphere Centre

1996 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 88-94
Author(s):  
J Van Gool ◽  
M Marker ◽  
F Mengel ◽  
Field party
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Early Proterozoic ◽  
West Greenland ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
Work Related ◽  
The North ◽  
West Greenland Current ◽  
The North Atlantic

The Danish Lithosphere Centre (DLC) has now completed its second season of field work in the Nagssugtoqidian orogen of West Greenland. The work is aimed at studying the orogenic evolution of the Nagssugtoqidian orogen and comparisons with other Early Proterozoic orogens on the northern margin of the North Atlantic Archaean craton (see Larsen, this report). This paper presents the preliminary results from the field work and the current status of laboratory work related to this project.

Ice-Sheet Initiation and Climatic Influences of Expanded Snow Cover in Arctic Canada

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Snow Cover ◽  
Temperature Change ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Surface Air Temperature ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
Climate Variables ◽  
Summer Insolation

It has been suggested that the Laurentide Ice Sheet originated with extensive perennial snow cover, and that the snow cover affected climate so as to aid ice-sheet development. In this study, a large increase in extent of October 1st snow cover in the Canadian Arctic from 1967–1970 to 1971–1975 is compared to changes in October means of other climate variables. Over the area of snow-cover expansion, mean surface air temperature decreased by up to 3°C, mean 500-mbar height was lowered by over 60 m, and precipitation was increased by up to a factor of two. These effects, if applied to the entire summer, together with the temperature change computed by Shaw and Donn for a Northern Hemisphere summer insolation minimum (the Milankovich effect), can account for glacierization of the Central Canadian Arctic.

Global Ice-Sheet System Interlocked by Sea Level

1986 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
George H. Denton ◽  
Terence J. Hughes ◽  
Wibjörn Karlén
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Atmospheric Carbon

Denton and Hughes (1983, Quaternary Research 20, 125–144) postulated that sea level linked a global ice-sheet system with both terrestrial and grounded marine components during late Quaternary ice ages. Summer temperature changes near Northern Hemisphere melting margins initiated sea-level fluctuations that controlled marine components in both polar hemispheres. It was further proposed that variations of this ice-sheet system amplified and transmitted Milankovitch summer half-year insolation changes between 45 and 75°N into global climatic changes. New tests of this hypothesis implicate sea level as a major control of the areal extent of grounded portions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, thus fitting the concept of a globally interlocked ice-sheet system. But recent atmospheric modeling results (Manabe and Broccoli, 1985, Journal of Geophysical Research 90, 2167–2190) suggest that factors other than areal changes of the grounded Antarctic Ice Sheet strongly influenced Southern Hemisphere climate and terminated the last ice age simultaneously in both polar hemispheres. Atmospheric carbon dioxide linked to high-latitude oceans is the most likely candidate (Shackleton and Pisias, 1985, Atmospheric carbon dioxide, orbital forcing, and climate. In “The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric CO2: Natural Variations Archean to Present” (E. T. Sundquest and W. S. Broecker, Eds.), pp. 303–318. Geophysical Monograph 32, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.), but another potential influence was high-frequency climatic oscillations (2500 yr). It is postulated that variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide acted through an Antarctic ice shelf linked to the grounded ice sheet to produce and terminate Southern Hemisphere ice-age climate. It is further postulated that Milankovitch summer insolation combined with a warm high-frequency oscillation caused marked recession of Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet melting margins and the North Atlantic polar front about 14,000 14C yr B.P. This permitted renewed formation of North Atlantic Deep Water, which could well have controlled atmospheric carbon dioxide (W. S. Broecker, D. M. Peteet, and D. Rind, 1985, Nature (London) 315, 21–26). Combined melting and consequent sea-level rise from the three warming factors initiated irreversible collapse of the interlocked global ice-sheet system, which was at its largest but most vulnerable configuration.

scholarly journals Glacier response to North Atlantic climate variability during the Holocene

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1587-1598 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. L. Balascio ◽  
W. J. D'Andrea ◽  
R. S. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Variability ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
North Atlantic Ocean ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Summer Insolation ◽  
Geochemical Parameters

Abstract. Small glaciers and ice caps respond rapidly to climate variations, and records of their past extent provide information on the natural envelope of past climate variability. Millennial-scale trends in Holocene glacier size are well documented and correspond with changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. However, there is only sparse and fragmentary evidence for higher-frequency variations in glacier size because in many Northern Hemisphere regions glacier advances of the past few hundred years were the most extensive and destroyed the geomorphic evidence of ice growth and retreat during the past several thousand years. Thus, most glacier records have been of limited use for investigating centennial-scale climate forcing and feedback mechanisms. Here we report a continuous record of glacier activity for the last 9.5 ka from southeast Greenland derived from high-resolution measurements on a proglacial lake sediment sequence. Physical and geochemical parameters show that the glaciers responded to previously documented Northern Hemisphere climatic excursions, including the "8.2 ka" cooling event, the Holocene Thermal Maximum, Neoglacial cooling, and 20th century warming. In addition, the sediments indicate centennial-scale oscillations in glacier size during the late Holocene. Beginning at 4.1 ka, a series of abrupt glacier advances occurred, each lasting ~100 years and followed by a period of retreat, that were superimposed on a gradual trend toward larger glacier size. Thus, while declining summer insolation caused long-term cooling and glacier expansion during the late Holocene, climate system dynamics resulted in repeated episodes of glacier expansion and retreat on multi-decadal to centennial timescales. These episodes coincided with ice rafting events in the North Atlantic Ocean and periods of regional ice cap expansion, which confirms their regional significance and indicates that considerable glacier activity on these timescales is a normal feature of the cryosphere. The data provide a longer-term perspective on the rate of 20th century glacier retreat and indicate that recent anthropogenic-driven warming has already impacted the regional cryosphere in a manner outside the natural range of Holocene variability.

The influence of orbital configurations on Northern Hemisphere ice sheet evolution during MIS 13 with a coupled climate-ice sheet model

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Niu ◽  
Paul Gierz ◽  
Evan J. Gowan ◽  
Gerrit Lohmann
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Summer Insolation

<p><span>Antarctic ice core and deep ocean sediment core records imply that the interglacial climate during Marine Isotope Stage 13 (MIS 13) was relatively cold, and ice sheets were likely larger than today. We model the MIS 13 climate with a coupled climate-ice sheet model AWI-ESM1.2-LR under different orbital configurations at 495, 506 and 517 kyr BP. Summer insolation at 65 °N at 495 kyr BP is similar to the preindustrial, but the lower greenhouse gas values lead to an ice sheet buildup relative to today. Boreal summer at perihelion at 506 kyr BP causes a warmer summer over Northern Hemisphere continents, inhibiting the development of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. Lower obliquity induces cooling over the polar regions and is favorable for the ice sheet buildup. Aside from the polar regions, mountains with high elevation also have favorable conditions for ice sheet buildup. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet is more sensitive and has a faster response to boreal summer insolation change than the other large scale Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. This indicates that different ice sheets might have different development processes. In addition, ice sheets do not build up over northeastern North America and Eurasia in our simulations. In our final set of simulations, we address the multi-stability of the ice sheets which could be a reason for causing this phenomenon. </span></p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document