Author: ["Paul R. Bierman","Jeremy D. Shakun","Lee B. Corbett","Susan R. Zimmerman","Dylan H. Rood"]
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Abstract
10Be and 26Al isotopic evidence in quartz sand from the seafloor shows that a dynamic East Greenland Ice Sheet has existed for the past 7.5 million years. Understanding the growth and stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet is a long-standing priority in palaeoclimate research, and one that is at the heart of modern discussion of sea-level rise. Paul Bierman and colleagues present marine records of cosmogenic isotopes and conclude that an ice sheet in East Greenland was continuously eroding sediments over the past 7.5 million years. Although the method could miss transient deglaciations and cannot firmly distinguish between remnant and larger ice sheets, the results are consistent with model simulations of a waxing and waning—but continuously present—regional ice sheet. Climate models show that ice-sheet melt will dominate sea-level rise over the coming centuries, but our understanding of ice-sheet variations before the last interglacial 125,000 years ago remains fragmentary. This is because terrestrial deposits of ancient glacial and interglacial periods1,2,3 are overrun and eroded by more recent glacial advances, and are therefore usually rare, isolated and poorly dated4. In contrast, material shed almost continuously from continents is preserved as marine sediment that can be analysed to infer the time-varying state of major ice sheets. Here we show that the East Greenland Ice Sheet existed over the past 7.5 million years, as indicated by beryllium and aluminium isotopes (10Be and 26Al) in quartz sand removed by deep, ongoing glacial erosion on land and deposited offshore in the marine sedimentary record5,6. During the early Pleistocene epoch, ice cover in East Greenland was dynamic; in contrast, East Greenland was mostly ice-covered during the mid-to-late Pleistocene. The isotope record we present is consistent with distinct signatures of changes in ice sheet behaviour coincident with major climate transitions. Although our data are continuous, they are from low-deposition-rate sites and sourced only from East Greenland. Consequently, the signal of extensive deglaciation during short, intense interglacials could be missed or blurred, and we cannot distinguish between a remnant ice sheet in the East Greenland highlands and a diminished continent-wide ice sheet. A clearer constraint on the behaviour of the ice sheet during past and, ultimately, future interglacial warmth could be produced by 10Be and 26Al records from a coring site with a higher deposition rate. Nonetheless, our analysis challenges the possibility of complete and extended deglaciation over the past several million years.Cite this article
Bierman, P., Shakun, J., Corbett, L. et al. A persistent and dynamic East Greenland Ice Sheet over the past 7.5 million years. Nature 540, 256–260 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20147 