Synchronous mid-Holocene marine and terrestrial deglaciation in the Ross Sea, Antarctica
The Ross Ice Shelf buttresses ice draining from both East and West Antarctica and its collapse could accelerate the loss of inland ice sheets, rapidly raising sea level. Documenting the location, timing and rate of past glacial retreat can help reveal processes driving rapid mass loss, informing projections of ice sheet responses to a warming climate. Here, we present a record of mid-Holocene ice retreat from the southwestern Ross Sea using facies succession and paired ramped pyrolysis oxidation <sup>14</sup>C/<sup>210</sup>Pb chronology. This record shows rapid ice shelf retreat from 6.9-5.4 cal kyr BP, coeval with thinning of adjacent outlet glaciers. Our findings reconcile earlier discrepancies in terrestrial and marine reconstructions, and indicate that synchronous grounding line retreat from west of Ross Island to the Siple Coast at ~7-6.2 cal kyr BP was likely driven by warm-water incursions, a process active in parts of Antarctica today.
Authors
- Min Kyung Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6273-4216)
- B. E. Rosenheim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6141-4651)
- Olivia Truax (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3194-5248)
- Jocelyn Christine Turnbull (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0306-9658)
- Robert M. McKay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5602-6985)
- Atun Zawadzki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1096-8109)
- Richard Levy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8783-0167)
- Christina R. Riesselman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2436-4306)
- Rebecca L. Parker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7714-4908)
- Kyu‐Cheul Yoo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6186-7535)
- Richard S. Jones (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2988-0999)
- C. Subt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5961-9498)
- Sebastian Naeher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5336-6458)
- Geraldine Jacobsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9644-5877)
- Gavin Dunbar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9871-4225)
- Catherine Ginnane (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7324-3116)
- Jae Il Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9086-7243)
Institutions
- GNS Science (NZ)
- Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (AU)
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US)
- Lincoln University (NZ)
- University of Canterbury (NZ)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Victoria University of Wellington (NZ)
- Korea Polar Research Institute (KR)
- Hutt Hospital (NZ)
- Monash University (AU)
- University of South Florida St. Petersburg (US)
- University of Otago (NZ)
- College of Marin (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-12-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65494-5
- Primary Topic
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00