On the Glacial History of Antarctica*
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ON THE GLACIAL HISTORY OF ANTARCTICA* By J. T. HOLLlN (Institute of Polar Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio) ABSTRACT. The Antarcti c Ice Sheet responds quickly to regime changes, and time lags in its fluc tuations a re relatively small. During the Pleistocene glacial stages of the N orthern H emisphere, world-wide tempera ture reductions reduced the plasticity of the ice sheet and ma d e it thicker. The amount of thickening d ep ended on the conditions a t the ice base but it was small , for mech a nical and thermal reasons. Also, during the northern stages, a ccumulation over Antarc ti ca was probabl y less than now, but this too had little effect on the thickness of the ice sheet. The mass budget of the ice sheet alone, wi thout the ice shelves, probably remained strongly positive; the ice sheet proba bly existed throughout the Pleistocene and is unlikely to disappear in the future. T he area of the ice sheet is determined chiefly by the elevation of the "grou nding line", where the peripheral ice cliffs and ice shelves begin to fl oat. During the northern stages, world-wide lowerings of sea-level displaced the ground ing li ne downwa rds a nd northwards, a nd a llowed the ice sheet to advance b y amounts which account for nearly all the evidence for previous greater glaciations. In summa ry, the glacial history of most ice-free a reas is governed not so much by climati c as by sea-level changes. T herefore, Antarctic glacial fluctua tions were dependent on and in phase with those of th e Northern H emisphere. T he field eviden ce from Antarcti ca has little bearing on the ultimat;- causes of glacial fl uctuations, which m ight however be d etermined by fiel d work on the planet Mars. R E;U ME . La calotte glaciaire de l'Antarctique rcpond rapid emel1l aux cha ngements de regime et les retards dam ses fluctuations sont rela tivement fai bles. Pendant les etages glaciaires du Pl eistocene dans I'hemispherc nord, les d iminutions de temperature sur le glob e en tier reduisirent la plasticite d e la ca lotte glaciaire et con tribuerent a I'augmentation de son cpa isse ur. Cette augmentation dependait des conditions regnant a la base de la glace, mais d Ie ctait faible pour des raisons mecaniques e t thermiques . Auss i, dura nt ces glaciati ons d ans I' hemisphere nord I'accumulation dans l'Anta rc ti que eta it probablement m oindre que maintenant, mais neanmoins el le influencait legercment I'epa isseur de la calotte g laciaire. Le bilan d e m asse de la calotte scule, c 'est it d ire sans les " ice shclves", res tai t sans doute fortement positif; la calotte glaciaire existait probablcmen t pendant lOut le Pl eistocene ct ne menace pas de disparaitre dans I'avenir. La superficie de la calolle glaciaire est principalement determinee par I'altitude dc la "grounding li ne" ou les fala ises d ; glace et les "iceshelves" peripheriques commencent a floller. P endant ces glacia tions d u nord, les aba issem ents du niveau de la mer d t pla\crent la "grounding line" vel'S le bas et vers le nord et permiren t a la calotte glaciaire d'avancer en consequence. ce qui explique la plus gran de extension des glaciations anterieures plus importantes. En resume, I' histoi re glaciaire de la plupart des e tendues libres de glace est regie d avantage p ar Ies varia tions du niveau de la mer q ue par les variations d u c1imat. Donc les fl uctuations glaciaires de l'Antarctique dcpendaient de cell es de I' hemisphere nord et etaient en phase avec elles . Les preuves recueil lies dans l'Antarc tique, sur le terrain, ont une fa ibl e importance d ans I'expli cation des dernieres ca uses de Iluctll at.ions glaciair!:s. q u' il serai t pell t-c tre possible de det rminer en travaill a n t sur la planete M a rs. ZUSA MM EN FASSUNG. Del' antarktischc Eissch ild rcagiert schn 11 a uf H allsha ltsandcrungen ; Verzogerungen in se inen Schwankungen sind verha ltnism as 'ig klein. Wahrend d er Vereisu ngen a uf del' n6rdlichen Halbkugel im Pleistozan verri ngerte der wel twcite TcmpcralU rrtiekgang d ie Plastizitat des Eisschildes und liess ihn anwachscn. Der Belrag der Aufh6hung hing von den Bed ingungen am Sockel des Eises ab, doch muss er aus mechanischen unci thermischen Grunder: kl ein gewesen sein. Wahrend del' E iszeiten im Norden w ar die Akkumulation uber der Anta l' ktis vermutlich geringer als hcule, aber auch dadurch wurde die Dicke des Eisschildcs nur unwcscntlich beeinH ussr. Der Masscnhaushal t des Eissch ildes a llein, ohne d ie E isschclfe. blieb wahrschcinl ich stark positiv ; der Eisschil d existi crte vermutlich wahrend des ganzen Pleistozan und la uft kallm Cefahr. in naher Zukllnft zu verschwi nden. Die A usdehnung des E isschildes ist vor a ll em durch d ie H 6henlage der "grounding lin c" bestimrnt, an der d ie rand lichen Eiskliffe und -schelfe zu schwimmcn bcginnen. Wa hrend c1er n6rcllichen E i 'zeiten wurde die "ground ing line" d urch das weltweite Absi n ken des Mcercsspiegels nach unten und nordwarts versetzt. Der Eisseh ild konnte dad ureh urn Betrage vorstossen , a uf d ie beinaht: a ll e Zeugnisse fur fru here grosscre Vereisungen zuruckzufuhren sind . Zusammenfassend kann man leSIS ldlen , dass d ie glaziale Geschichtc del' meisten eisfreicn Gebietc m ehr von Meeresspiegel-a ls von Klimaschwankungen bestimmt is!. Dcs halb waren die Sch wankungen del' antarktischen V e rcisung a bha ngig von denjenigen auf der Nordha lbkugel und p hasengleich mit ihnen . Die Ergebnisse von Feldunter suchungen in d el' Antarktis k6nnen nur wenig zur ursachlichen Kl arung \'on Gletscherschwankungen beitragen. Sic konnte indessen eher durch Fcldarbciten auf dem Pl ancten M a rs gewonnen werden . 1. INTRO DUCTION I . The problem Recent papers on Antarcti ca, particul arly those of Pewe (1960), Nichols (196 I [ a]), and Bull and others ( 1962 ), suggest tha t the ice cover there has fluctuated several times during the Pleistocene. Obviously it is important to determine the history and extent of these fluctua ti ons, to decide how they were related to those of the Eurasian and North American ice sheets, arid to calculate the sea-level changes they produced. However, these are difficult problems to .. Contrihution No. 8 , Institute of Polar S tudies, The Ohio S tate University, Columbus. Ohio. 173 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. 28 Sep 2021 at 07:00:06, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use. 174 JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY solve, chiefly because of the small area of the ice-free land available for geological field work. Indeed, the best record of Antarctic glaciation may in the end be found in the oceanic sedi ments outside the continent. This paper represents a glaciological approach to these problems. In Section II the present m ass budget and m echanics of the ice sheet are reviewed; this is a simple section but the information and conclusions in it are essential to the rest of the paper. Sections Ill, IV and V treat theoreticall y the fluctuations produced in Antarctica by the world-wide changes of o· MAUDHEI M / .~'AN MAWSON ° SOUTH ° ICE \ 8 5' POLE SOVETSKAYA • HORLlCK • MT S. V6~~~~~ ~YA/ . MIRjNYV.90 ' E. K OMSO M O~SKAVA· VO STOK o B UN GER'S OASIS ROSS / WI N DM ILL ISLANDS" ISLAND / WILKEt. S-f))2. ROOSE VELT < M, M URDO BALAENA ISLANDS OISLAND - SO UND ---_1 0 ""- PETERSEN BAN K :x: - WILSON /~ ROSSr-... - ~ PI EDM ONT GL SEA » LADY NEWNES 1.5 . • BASE s: /' , ,SEAWARD LIMIT OF ICE~HE LVES ;Z D' U RVILLE o OCEAN \.J NAMED I N T EXT SCALE ? 10,0 0 KM 18 0' CA PE A DA RE JTH. 1961 .11 ). I PS Fig. I. Antarctica, showing places named ill lext temperature, precipitation and sea-level associated with the glacial fluctuations of the Northern Hemisphere. Section VI is concerned with changes unrelated to those of the N'orthern Hemisphere. The chief conclusion of this paper is that the greatest glacial flu ctua tions in Antarctica were produced by changes of sea-level; this conclusion is reached In Section V, and this part of the paper may be the most interesting one for field workers. 2. The Ulzimporlan ce of lime lags The major glacial fluctuations in the Northern H emisphere had a periodicity of the order of 100,000 yr. It is shown in this paper that the major fluctuations in Antarctica had a similar periodicity; therefore, the warning by Roots (1952) that " the lag between climatic change and change in the form of the glacier may be longer than the period of climatic change itself" can be ignored, and the maxima and minima in the flu ctuations can be considered as steady states. In detail, there are three reasons for this: Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. 28 Sep 2021 at 07:00:06, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use. ON TH E G LA C IAL HIST O RY O F A NT A R CT I C A (a) Fifty thousand years is m ore than enough time for the ice sheet to "build up" from a minimum to a m axim um state.