Paleoclimatic Evidence for Future Ice-Sheet Instability and Rapid Sea-Level Rise
@article{Overpeck2006PaleoclimaticEF, title={Paleoclimatic Evidence for Future Ice-Sheet Instability and Rapid Sea-Level Rise}, author={Jonathan T. Overpeck and Bette L. Otto‐Bliesner and Gifford H. Miller and Daniel R. Muhs and Richard B. Alley and Jeffrey T. Kiehl}, journal={Science}, year={2006}, volume={311}, pages={1747 - 1750} }
Sea-level rise from melting of polar ice sheets is one of the largest potential threats of future climate change. Polar warming by the year 2100 may reach levels similar to those of 130,000 to 127,000 years ago that were associated with sea levels several meters above modern levels; both the Greenland Ice Sheet and portions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet may be vulnerable. The record of past ice-sheet melting indicates that the rate of future melting and related sea-level rise could be faster than…
500 Citations
Record of a Mid-Pleistocene depositional anomaly in West Antarctic continental margin sediments: an indicator for ice-sheet collapse?
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 2009
Simulating Arctic Climate Warmth and Icefield Retreat in the Last Interglaciation
- Environmental Science, GeographyScience
- 2006
The authors' simulated climate matches paleoclimatic observations of past warming, and the combination of physically based climate and ice-sheet modeling with ice-core constraints indicate that the Greenland Ice Sheet and other circum-Arctic ice fields likely contributed 2.2 to 3.4 meters of sea-level rise during the Last Interglaciation.
Sea-level feedback lowers projections of future Antarctic Ice-Sheet mass loss
- Environmental ScienceNature communications
- 2015
A coupled ice sheet–sea-level model is used to investigate the impact of the feedback mechanism on future AIS retreat over centennial and millennial timescales for a range of emission scenarios and shows that the combination of bedrock uplift and sea-surface drop associated with ice-sheet retreat significantly reduces AIS mass loss.
Role of Antarctic ice mass balance in present-day sea-level change
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2008
Late Quaternary ice-ocean interactions in central West Greenland
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2011
A greater knowledge of the interactions between the Greenland Ice Sheet and climate is critical to understanding the possible impacts of future global warming, including ice sheet contribution to…
Testing the sensitivity of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to Southern Ocean dynamics: past changes and future implications
- Environmental Science
- 2014
The stability of Antarctic ice sheets and their potential contribution to sea level under projected future warming remains highly uncertain. The Last Interglacial (135 000–116 000 years ago) provides…
Projections of future sea level becoming more dire
- Environmental ScienceProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2009
A new study in this issue of PNAS provides useful insight into how sea level will change through this century and beyond.
Ice and sea-level change
- Environmental Science
- 2007
Sea-level rise is a major impact of global warming. There is clear scientific consensus that sea level is rising partly in response to past emissions of greenhouse gases from human activity. Melting…
Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet responses to past climate warming
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2012
During periods of glaciation, the Northern Hemisphere was swathed by large ice sheets. A review of ice-sheet retreat during the last two deglaciations shows that land-based ice sheets responded…
Contribution of Antarctica to past and future sea-level rise
- Environmental Science, GeographyNature
- 2016
A model coupling ice sheet and climate dynamics—including previously underappreciated processes linking atmospheric warming with hydrofracturing of buttressing ice shelves and structural collapse of marine-terminating ice cliffs—is calibrated against Pliocene and Last Interglacial sea-level estimates and applied to future greenhouse gas emission scenarios.
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 71 REFERENCES
Ice-Sheet and Sea-Level Changes
- Environmental Science, GeographyScience
- 2005
Observational and modeling advances have reduced many uncertainties related to ice-sheets behavior, but recently detected, rapid ice-marginal changes contributing to sea-level rise may indicate greater ice-sheet sensitivity to warming than previously considered.
Climatology: Threatened loss of the Greenland ice-sheet
- Environmental ScienceNature
- 2004
It is shown here that concentrations of greenhouse gases will probably have reached levels before the year 2100 that are sufficient to raise the temperature past this warming threshold.
Simulating Arctic Climate Warmth and Icefield Retreat in the Last Interglaciation
- Environmental Science, GeographyScience
- 2006
The authors' simulated climate matches paleoclimatic observations of past warming, and the combination of physically based climate and ice-sheet modeling with ice-core constraints indicate that the Greenland Ice Sheet and other circum-Arctic ice fields likely contributed 2.2 to 3.4 meters of sea-level rise during the Last Interglaciation.
Pleistocene collapse of the west antarctic ice sheet
- Environmental Science, GeographyScience
- 1998
The occurrence of young diatoms and high concentrations of beryllium-10 beneath grounded ice indicates that the Ross Embayment was an open marine environment after a late Pleistocene collapse of the marine ice sheet.
Past and Future Grounding-Line Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
- Environmental ScienceScience
- 1999
Current grounding-line retreat may reflect ongoing ice recession that has been under way since the early Holocene, and if so, the WAIS could continue to retreat even in the absence of further external forcing.
Snowfall-Driven Growth in East Antarctic Ice Sheet Mitigates Recent Sea-Level Rise
- Environmental ScienceScience
- 2005
Satellite radar altimetry measurements indicate that the East Antarctic ice-sheet interior north of 81.6°S increased in mass by 45 ± 7 billion metric tons per year from 1992 to 2003, enough to slow sea-level rise by 0.12 ± 0.02 millimeters per year.
Warm ocean is eroding West Antarctic Ice Sheet
- Environmental Science
- 2004
Satellite radar measurements show that ice shelves in Pine Island Bay have thinned by up to 5.5 m yr−1 over the past decade. The pattern of shelf thinning mirrors that of their grounded tributaries ‐…
Substantial contribution to sea-level rise during the last interglacial from the Greenland ice sheet
- Environmental Science, GeographyNature
- 2000
It is concluded that the high sea level during the last interglacial period most probably included a large contribution from Greenland meltwater and therefore should not be interpreted as evidence for a significant reduction of the West Antarctic ice sheet.
Deglacial sea-level record from Tahiti corals and the timing of global meltwater discharge
- Environmental Science, GeographyNature
- 1996
THE timing of the last deglaciation is important to our understanding of the dynamics of large ice sheets1 and their effects on the Earth's surface2,3. Moreover, the disappearance of the glacial ice…
Surface Melt-Induced Acceleration of Greenland Ice-Sheet Flow
- Environmental ScienceScience
- 2002
The near coincidence of the ice acceleration with the duration of surface melting, followed by deceleration after the melting ceases, indicates that glacial sliding is enhanced by rapid migration of surface meltwater to the ice-bedrock interface.