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+ Snowfall-Driven Growth in East Antarctic Ice Sheet R EPORTS and salt contrast between the North Pacific water vapor would have heightened the the central Arctic Ocean’’ (Integrated Ocean Drilling and Southern Ocean would have been the sensitivity of surface temperatures to rising Program Preliminary Report 302, ECORD, 2005), available at www.ecord.org/exp/acex/302PR.html. sudden onset of deep convection in the North atmospheric CO2 and CH4 concentrations, 13. D. K. Pak, K. G. Miller, Paleoceanography 7, 405 (1992). Pacific. Bottom waters formed would have providing a strong positive feedback to 14. R. Corfield, J. Cartlidge, Terra Nova 4, 443 (1992). filled deep Pacific basins and flowed through warming (25, 26). The eventual sequestration 15. K. Miller, R. Fairbanks, G. Mountain, Paleoceanography 2, 1 (1987). the Indonesian passage into the eastern of carbon through the biologic pump (17), 16. K. L. Bice, J. Marotzke, Paleoceanography 17, 9 (2002). Indian Ocean basin, and the locus of deep- terrestrial productivity (27), and weathering 17. H. Stoll, S. Bains, Paleoceanography 18, 10.1029/ water formation along Antarctica would (28) would have resulted in global cooling 2002PA000875 (2003). È 18. D. J. Thomas, T. J. Bralower, C. E. Jones, Earth Planet. have shoaled (16). over 100,000 to 200,000 years. Associated Sci. Lett. 209, 309 (2003). How would methane hydrate dissociation temperature and hydrologic cycle changes 19. D. J. Thomas, J. C. Zachos, T. J. Bralower, E. Thomas, and an abrupt change in ocean circulation have would have driven a return to deep sinking in S. Bohaty, Geology 30, 1067 (2002). 20. R. W. Knox, in Late Paleocene-Early Eocene Climatic affected climate? The injection of 2000 Gt of the Southern Hemisphere and shutdown of and Biotic Events in the Marine and Terrestrial Record, È CH4 into the oceans over 10,000 years (the convection in the North Pacific (16). M. P. Aubry, S. G. Lucas, W. A. Berggren, Eds. (Columbia amount necessary to drive the d13C excursion) Univ. Press, New York, 1998), pp. 91–102. 21. H. Rennsen, C. J. Beefs, T. Fichefet, H. Goosse, D. Kroon, would have been insufficient to raise atmo- References and Notes Paleoceanography 19, 10.1029/2003PA000968 (2004). 1. J. P. Kennett, L. D. Stott, Nature 353, 225 (1991). spheric CO2 concentrations enough to drive 22. A. Inamdar, V. Ramanathan, J. Geophys. Res. 103, whole-ocean warming of 4 to 5-C. The radia- 2. E. Thomas, N. J. Shackleton, in Correlation of the 32177 (1998). tive forcing associated with a 70- to 160- Early Paleogene in Northwest Europe, R. W. O. Knox, 23. C. Robert, J. P. Kennett, Geology 22, 211 (1994). R. M. Corfield, R. E. Dunay, Eds. (Geological Society 24. G. J. Bowen, D. J. Beerling, P. L. Koch, J. C. Zachos, T. ppmv increase in CO2 wouldhavecausedonly Special Publication 101, London, 1996), pp. 401–441. Quattlebaum, Nature 432, 495 (2004). È1-Cwarming(21), and therefore the clath- 3. P. L. Koch, J. C. Zachos, P. D. Gingerich, Nature 358, 25.S.Manabe,R.T.Wetherald,J. Atmos. Sci. 24, 241 (1967). rate hypothesis necessitates still unresolved 319 (1992). 26. D. Rind et al., Nature 349, 500 (1991). 4. G. R. Dickens, J. R. O’Neil, D. C. Rea, R. M. Owen, 27. D. J. Beerling, Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. climatic feedbacks to amplify and sustain Paleoceanography 10, 965 (1995). 161, 395 (2000). PETM warmth. 5. G. R. Dickens, M. M. Castillo, J. C. G. Walker, Geology 28. G. Ravizza, R. N. Norris, J. Blusztajn, M. P. Aubry, The abrupt switch to convection in the 25, 259 (1997). Paleoceanography 16, 155 (2001). 6. G. A. Schmidt, D. T. Shindell, Paleoceanography 18, 29. W. S. Broecker, T. H. Peng, Tracers in the Sea (Eldigio, North Pacific is modeled to have warmed the 10.1029/2002PA000757 (2003). Palisades, NY, 1982). deep ocean by up to 3 to 5-C (Fig. 1) (16) 7. A. Tripati, H. Elderfield, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 30. C. Lear, Y. Rosenthal, N. Slowey, Geochim. Cosmo- and could have driven the PETM by main- 5, 10.1029/2003GC000631 (2004). chim. Acta 66, 3375 (2002). taining high levels of atmospheric CO and 8. J. Zachos et al., Science 302, 1551 (2003). 31. B. Wilkinson, T. Algeo, Am. J. Sci. 289, 1158 (1989). 2 9. We analyzed Oridorsalis umbonatus, Nuttallides 32. We thank W. Broecker for discussions; K. Bice, M. Bickle, water vapor. Circulation-induced ocean warm- truempyi,andCibicidoides spp. benthic taxa that S. Crowhurst, and A. Piotrowski for thoughtful reviews; ing could have driven additional increases in have previously been used to reconstruct low- R. Eagle for his support and advice; P. Rumford, B. resolution T records for the Cenozoic and high- Horan, and Gulf Coast Ocean Drilling Program Repos- atmospheric CO by destabilizing methane B 2 resolution records across the Eocene-Oligocene itory staff for provision of samples; and L. Booth, P. hydrates in deep ocean sediments (16). The boundary (11). Seawater Mg/Ca can be considered Ferretti, and M. Greaves for their invaluable technical help. This research used samples and data provided solubility of CO2 in seawater would also have constant over the duration of the PETM, because of decreased because of temperature and salinity the relatively long oceanic residence times of Ca by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). Supported by (È106 years) and Mg (107 years) (29). The magni- the Comer Foundation. changes, promoting higher atmospheric CO2. tude of warming calculated is therefore independent Tropical ocean warming would have also of seawater Mg/Ca ratio used. Absolute temperatures Supporting Online Material promoted a more vigorous hydrologic cycle, were calculated with current estimates for taxon- www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5730/1894/ higher evaporation rates, and saturation vapor specific pre-exponential constants (30) and recon- DC1 structions of seawater Mg/Ca for 55 Ma (3.1 mmol/ Materials and Methods pressures, resulting in increased levels of mol) (31). Figs. S1 to S3 atmospheric water vapor (22), consistent 10. Materials and methods are available as supporting Tables S1 to S3 with proxy data for surface water salinity material on Science Online. References and Notes 11. C. Lear, H. Elderfield, P. Wilson, Science 287, 269 (2000). (7, 8) and humidity (23, 24)acrossthe 12. Shipboard Scientific Party, ‘‘Arctic Coring Expedition 27 December 2004; accepted 20 May 2005 PETM. The added radiative absorption from (ACEX): Paleoceanographic and tectonic evolution of 10.1126/science.1109202 concern about accelerated sea-level rise caused Snowfall-Driven Growth in East by ice-sheet change. In contrast, the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Antarctic Ice Sheet Mitigates (IPCC) assessment predicts that overall, the Antarctic ice sheet will absorb mass during the 21st century due to increased precipitation in a Recent Sea-Level Rise warming global climate (6). Thus, increased Curt H. Davis,1* Yonghong Li,1 Joseph R. McConnell,2 precipitation over Antarctica could mitigate Markus M. Frey,3 Edward Hanna4 some of the mass loss from other terrestrial ice sources and their contributions to global sea- Satellite radar altimetry measurements indicate that the East Antarctic ice- level rise. Here, we analyze elevation change sheet interior north of 81.6-S increased in mass by 45 T 7 billion metric tons of the Antarctic ice-sheet interior from 1992 to per year from 1992 to 2003. Comparisons with contemporaneous meteoro- 2003 using nearly continuous satellite radar logical model snowfall estimates suggest that the gain in mass was associated altimeter measurements. Because temporal with increased precipitation. A gain of this magnitude is enough to slow sea- variations in snowfall have been linked previ- level rise by 0.12 T 0.02 millimeters per year. ously to decadal elevation change in Green- land_sinterior(7), we compare the observed Recent studies report substantial contributions È1.8 mm/year (5). Rapid increases in near- elevation change to newly released meteoro- from the Greenland (1, 2) and Antarctic (3, 4) coastal Greenland ice-sheet thinning (2)and logical model estimates of contemporaneous ice sheets to present-day sea-level rise of West Antarctic glacial discharge (4) strengthen snowfall. 1898 24 JUNE 2005 VOL 308 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org R EPORTS After correction for isostatic uplift, ice- thickening in the near-coastal area of basin C- Byrd Land (Eµ-H). Strong thinning in basin G- sheet elevation-change measurements from C¶ east of the Amery ice shelf. Overall, the H is associated with even more rapid thinning continuous and/or repeat altimeter surveys East Antarctic ice-sheet interior within the in the coastal outlets of the Pine Island and are a direct measure of net mass change. We ROC is thickening at a rate of 1.8 T 0.3 Thwaites glaciers (4, 9, 13), possibly caused measured elevation change (dH)over8.5 cm/year. In contrast, the West Antarctic ice by increased basal melting due to ocean million km2 of the grounded Antarctic ice- sheet exhibits bimodal behavior. There is mod- thermal forcing (14). Conversely, basins adja- sheet interior (È70% of total ice-sheet area) est to strong thinning in the basins of Marie cent to the Antarctic Peninsula and Ronne ice using È347 million dH measurements derived from European Remote-Sensing Satellite–1 (ERS-1) and ERS-2 ice-mode satellite radar Fig. 1. Elevation- altimeter data (coverage extends to 81.6-S). change (black circles) time series from 1992 These data were processed and analyzed in to 2003 for È7.1  106 a manner consistent with the procedures and km2 of the East Ant- methods described in (8–10). We generated arctic ice-sheet interior. time series (Fig. 1) of monthly dH averages The seasonal and inter- from 1992 to 2003 for È1500 1-  2- annual cycle (blue line) (latitude longitude) regions, 22 major drain- and long-term trend  (red line) are modeled age basins, Berkner Island, West and East as described in the text.
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