scholarly journals The impact of the North American glacial topography on the evolution of the Eurasian ice sheet over the last glacial cycle

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1225-1241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Liakka ◽  
Marcus Löfverström ◽  
Florence Colleoni
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Stationary Wave ◽  
Ocean Heat Transport ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The North ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. Modeling studies have shown that the continental-scale ice sheets in North America and Eurasia in the last glacial cycle had a large influence on the atmospheric circulation and thus yielded a climate distinctly different from the present. However, to what extent the two ice sheets influenced each others' growth trajectories remains largely unexplored. In this study we investigate how an ice sheet in North America influences the downstream evolution of the Eurasian ice sheet, using a thermomechanical ice-sheet model forced by climate data from atmospheric snapshot experiments of three distinctly different phases of the last glacial cycle: the Marine Isotope Stages 5b, 4, and 2 (Last Glacial Maximum – LGM). Owing to the large uncertainty associated with glacial changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, each atmospheric snapshot experiment was conducted using two distinctly different ocean heat transport representations. Our results suggest that changes in the North American paleo-topography may have largely controlled the zonal distribution of the Eurasian ice sheet. In the MIS4 and LGM experiments, the Eurasian ice sheet migrates westward towards the Atlantic sector – largely consistent with geological data and contemporary ice-sheet reconstructions – due to a low wave number stationary wave response, which yields a cooling in Europe and a warming in northeastern Siberia. The expansion of the North American ice sheet between MIS4 and the LGM amplifies the Siberian warm anomaly, which limits the glaciation there and may therefore help explain the progressive westward migration of the Eurasian ice sheet in this time period. The ocean heat transport only has a small influence on the stationary wave response to the North American glacial topography; however, because temperature anomalies have a smaller influence on an ice sheet's ablation in a colder climate than in a warmer one, the impact of the North American glacial topography on the Eurasian ice-sheet evolution is reduced for colder surface conditions in the North Atlantic. While the Eurasian ice sheet in the MIS4 and the LGM experiments appears to be in equilibrium with the simulated climate conditions, the MIS5b climate forcing is too warm to grow an ice sheet in Eurasia. First-order sensitivity experiments suggest that the MIS5b ice sheet was established during preceding colder stages.

scholarly journals The impact of the North American ice sheet on the evolution of the Eurasian ice sheet during the last glacial cycle

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 5203-5241 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Liakka ◽  
M. Löfverström ◽  
F. Colleoni
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Atlantic Sector ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The North ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. Modeling studies show that the massive ice sheet expanding over the North American and Eurasian continents in the last glacial cycle has a large impact on the atmospheric stationary waves and thus yielded a glacial climate distinctly different from the present. However, to what extent the two ice sheets influenced each others growth trajectories remains largely unexplored. In this study we investigate how ice sheets in North America influence the downstream evolution of the Eurasian ice sheet, using a thermomechanical ice-sheet model forced by climate data from snapshot simulations of three distinctly different phases of the last glacial cycle: the Marine Isotope Stages 5b, 4 and 2 (LGM). Our results suggest that changes in the North American paleo-topography may have had a large influence on evolution of the Eurasian ice sheet. In the MIS4 and LGM experiments, the Eurasian ice sheet migrates westward towards the Atlantic sector – largely consistent with geological data and contemporary ice-sheet reconstructions – due to a low wavenumber stationary wave response, which yields a cooling in Europe and a warming in northeastern Siberia. The expansion of the North American ice sheet between MIS4 and LGM amplifies the Siberian warm anomaly, which limits the glaciation there and may therefore help to explain the progressive westward migration of the Eurasian ice sheet over this time period. While the Eurasian ice sheet in the MIS4 and LGM experiments appears to be in equilibrium with the simulated climate conditions, the MIS5b climate forcing is too warm to grow an ice sheet. First-order sensitivity experiments suggest that most of the MIS5b ice sheet was established during preceding colder stages.

scholarly journals Influence of ablation-related processes in the built-up of simulated Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the last glacial cycle

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 4897-4938 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Charbit ◽  
C. Dumas ◽  
M. Kageyama ◽  
D. M. Roche ◽  
C. Ritz
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Satisfactory Description ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Transient Simulations ◽  
Main Driver ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. Since the original formulation of the positive-degree-day (PDD) method, different PDD calibrations have been proposed in the literature in response to the increasing number of observations. Although these formulations provide a satisfactory description of the present-day Greenland geometry, they have not all been tested for paleo ice sheets. Using the climate-ice sheet model CLIMBER-GRISLI coupled with different PDD models, we evaluate how the parameterization of the ablation may affect the evolution of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets in the transient simulations of the last glacial cycle. Results from fully coupled simulations are compared to time-slice experiments carried out at different key periods of the last glacial period. We find large differences in the simulated ice sheets according to the chosen PDD model. These differences occur as soon as the onset of glaciation, therefore affecting the subsequent evolution of the ice system. To further investigate how the PDD method controls this evolution, special attention is given to the role of each PDD parameter. We show that glacial inception is critically dependent on the representation of the impact of the temperature variability from the daily to the inter-annual time scale, whose effect is modulated by the refreezing scheme. Finally, an additional set of sensitivity experiments has been carried out to assess the relative importance of melt processes with respect to initial ice sheet configuration in the construction and the evolution of past Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. Our analysis reveals that the impacts of the initial ice sheet condition may range from quite negligible to explaining about half of the LGM ice volume depending on the representation of stochastic temperature variations which remain the main driver of the evolution of the ice system.

scholarly journals The origin of till sequences by subglacial sediment deformation beneath mid-latitude ice sheets

1996 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 75-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. S. Boulton
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Erosion And Deposition ◽  
The North ◽  
Sediment Deformation ◽  
Source Materials ◽  
The Last Glacial

A theory of erosion and deposition as a consequence of subglacial sediment deformation over beds of unlithified sediment is reviewed and applied to large-scale till sequences formed on the southern flanks of the North American and British and European ice sheets during the last glacial cycle. The distribution of till thickness, till lithology in relation to source materials and intra-till erosion surfaces along a flowline in the Michigan lobe of the North American ice sheet are shown to be compatible with the deformational theory but not with other modes of till genesis. It is then demonstrated, in the case of the British ice sheet, how the assumption of a deformational origin for tills can be used to infer time-dependent patterns of ice-sheet dynamic behaviour. By reference to an example from the Netherlands, it is argued that many till sequences interpreted as melt-out tills are more likely to have formed by subglacial sediment deformation.

scholarly journals The origin of till sequences by subglacial sediment deformation beneath mid-latitude ice sheets

1996 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 75-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. S. Boulton
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Erosion And Deposition ◽  
The North ◽  
Sediment Deformation ◽  
Source Materials ◽  
The Last Glacial

A theory of erosion and deposition as a consequence of subglacial sediment deformation over beds of unlithified sediment is reviewed and applied to large-scale till sequences formed on the southern flanks of the North American and British and European ice sheets during the last glacial cycle. The distribution of till thickness, till lithology in relation to source materials and intra-till erosion surfaces along a flowline in the Michigan lobe of the North American ice sheet are shown to be compatible with the deformational theory but not with other modes of till genesis. It is then demonstrated, in the case of the British ice sheet, how the assumption of a deformational origin for tills can be used to infer time-dependent patterns of ice-sheet dynamic behaviour. By reference to an example from the Netherlands, it is argued that many till sequences interpreted as melt-out tills are more likely to have formed by subglacial sediment deformation.

scholarly journals Tracking the History of the North American Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Cycle

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Parker ◽  
Gavin Foster ◽  
Marcus Gutjahr ◽  
Paul Wilson ◽  
Kate Littler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Last Glacial

scholarly journals Influence of ablation-related processes in the build-up of simulated Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the last glacial cycle

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 681-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Charbit ◽  
C. Dumas ◽  
M. Kageyama ◽  
D. M. Roche ◽  
C. Ritz
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Satisfactory Description ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Transient Simulations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. Since the original formulation of the positive-degree-day (PDD) method, different PDD calibrations have been proposed in the literature in response to the increasing number of observations. Although these formulations generally provide a satisfactory description of the present-day Greenland geometry, they have not all been tested for paleo ice sheets. Using the climate-ice sheet model CLIMBER-GRISLI coupled with different PDD models, we evaluate how the parameterisation of the ablation may affect the evolution of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets in the transient simulations of the last glacial cycle. Results from fully coupled simulations are compared to time-slice experiments carried out at different key periods of the last glacial period. We find large differences in the simulated ice sheets according to the chosen PDD model. These differences occur as soon as the onset of glaciation, therefore affecting the subsequent evolution of the ice system. To further investigate how the PDD method controls this evolution, special attention is given to the role of each PDD parameter. We show that glacial inception is critically dependent on the representation of the impact of the temperature variability from the daily to the inter-annual time scale, whose effect is modulated by the refreezing scheme. Finally, an additional set of sensitivity experiments has been carried out to assess the relative importance of melt processes with respect to initial ice sheet configuration in the construction and the evolution of past Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. Our analysis reveals that the impacts of the initial ice sheet condition may range from quite negligible to explaining about half of the LGM ice volume depending on the representation of stochastic temperature variations which remain the main driver of the evolution of the ice system. The main findings of this paper underline the need for conducting studies with high resolution climate models coupled to detailed snow models to better constrain the temporal and spatial variations of the PDD parameters. The development of such approaches could improve the calibration of the PDD formulation which is still widely used in climate-ice sheet studies.

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