The Icehouse world - the last 34 million years

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3.5 Change in average global temperature over the last 80 Ma. The temperature curve of Crowley and Kim (1995[1]) is modified to show the effect of the methane discharge at 55 Ma (Zachos et al., 2003[2]; Zachos et al., 2005[3]). The future rise in temperature expected from energy use projections shows the Earth warming back into the ‘greenhouse world’(from Mayewski et al., 2009[4]).
3.6 Main climatic events of the last 65 million years in the Antarctic context (adapted from Mayewski et al., 2009[4]).

The first continental-scale ice sheets formed on Antarctica close to the Eocene-Oligocene boundary around 34 Ma), and are physically recorded in strata from Prydz Bay, McMurdo Sound and Seymour Island (Francis et al., 2008b[5]). Deep-sea isotope data suggest they were similar in size to that of today (Miller et al., 2008[6]). According to DeConto and Pollard (2003[7]) the development of these first Antarctic ice sheets was triggered in an interval when the Earth’s orbit of the Sun favoured cool summers as atmospheric CO2 levels declined below a critical threshold (~2.8 times pre-industrial). This decline has been documented (Pagani et al., 2005[8]; Siegert et al., 2008[9]) and has been ascribed to reduced CO2 outgassing from ocean ridges, volcanoes and metamorphic belts and increased carbon burial (Pearson and Palmer, 2000[10]), dropping global temperatures from at least 6 to around 4ºC higher than today (Figure 3.5 and Figure 3.6). The fall in CO2 levels at this time is also reflected in a 1-km drop in the calcium compensation depth in the tropical Pacific Ocean (Coxall et al., 2005[11]).

3.1 Map of Antarctica showing main geographic features (EAIS – East Antarctic Ice Sheet; WAIS – West Antarctic Ice Sheet) and locations of selected deep ice and sediment cores. Note: The McMurdo Sound area (box) includes 23 sediment cores, 14 on land and 9 from floating ice and ranging in length from ~ 50 to 1,285 m (see Naish et al., 2008a[12]; Barrett, 2009 for details). Further records of Antarctic geological history are found at Seymour Island (SI), James Ross Island (JRI), Alexander Island (AI) and the Beardmore Glacier region (BG).
3.7 View of the Victoria Land coast off Cape Roberts during Oligocene and early Miocene times (from Barrett, 2007[13]). (A) Glacial period, with an expanded inland ice sheet feeding thin temperate piedmont glaciers depositing sediment to a shallow shelf to be reworked by waves and currents nearshore with mud settling out offshore. (B) Interglacial period, with higher sea level and a much reduced ice sheet. Sediment carried to the coast largely by proglacial rivers. Low woodland beech forest at lower elevations. Insets for A and B show examples of the modelled extent of an ice sheet that might have existed during glacial and interglacial periods in early Oligocene times, representing 21 × 106 km3 of ice (50 m of sea level equivalent) in A, and 10 × 106 km3 of ice (24 m of sea level equivalent) in B (DeConto et al., 2007[14]). The location of Cape Roberts is shown as a white filled circle. TAM = Transantarctic Mountains, EAIS = East Antarctic Ice Sheet.

The pulsating style of Antarctic glaciation in Oligocene-early Miocene times is best recorded from 1,500 m of nearshore marine sediments drilled off Cape Roberts in the southwest Ross Sea (Figure 3.1 and Figure 3.7) and in the middle to late Oligocene Polonez Cove Formation, exposed on south-eastern King George Island, South Shetland Islands (Troedson and Smellie, 2002[15]). At Cape Roberts, sediments resulting from 55 glacial-interglacial cycles have accumulated close to sea level on the subsiding margin of the Victoria Land Basin, spanning the period from 33 to 17 Ma (Barrett, 2007[13]). The site was close to the edge of the continental ice sheet and recorded its cyclic expansion and contraction on Milankovitch frequencies (41 ka and 100 ka, Naish et al., 2001[16]; Naish et al., 2008b[17]; Huybrechts, 2009[18]; Naish et al., 2009[19]; Pollard and DeConto, 2009[20]). The changes in sediment type that characterize the cycles - from glacial deposits through nearshore sand and offshore mud to sand again - indicate sea level changes on a scale of tens of metres (Dunbar et al., 2008[21]). Despite episodes of extensive ice cover palynological studies indicate a coastal vegetation ranging from low woodland (Nothofagus) to tundra persisting through the Oligocene with a slight cooling in early Miocene times (Prebble et al., 2006[22]).

Recent studies of an ancient glacial landscape in the Olympus Range on the inland edge of the McMurdo Dry Valleys have revealed warm-based glacial deposits overlain by ridges of cold-based gravelly debris, each bearing volcanic ash beds ~14 and ~13.6 Ma respectively. The landscape has changed little since that time, the lack of alteration being ascribed to a persistent frozen state from that time on, recording a sharp Middle Miocene cooling (Lewis et al., 2007[23]). Ash-bearing proglacial lake beds, also dated at ~14 Ma, include an ostracod fauna, Nothofagus pollen and beds of moss, and are regarded as possibly the last vestiges of this fauna and flora in the region (Ashworth et al., 2007[24]; Lewis et al.; 2008). A well preserved flora of in situ Nothofagus dwarf shrubs, mosses and cushion plants, along with the remains of beetles, molluscs, fish and parts of flies, from the Sirius Group, Oliver Bluffs in the Dominion Range, Transantarctic Mountains also provide good evidence for tundra conditions in this region only 300 miles from the South Pole. The fossils are preserved in a glacio-fluvial-lacustrine-palaeosol layer that represents a warmer interval that prompted glacial retreat between colder intervals during which glaciers were present at that site (Francis and Hill, 1996[25]; Ashworth and Cantrill, 2004[26]). Unfortunately an undisputed age for these deposits is not available.

The sharp cooling in the Middle Miocene has long been known from deep-sea isotopic studies (Shackleton and Kennett, 1975[27]), and was probably caused by the growing thermal isolation of Antarctica and related intensification of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current described above, accompanied by a drop in atmospheric CO2 (Shevenell et al., 1996[28]). This thickened the ice sheet to more or less its modern configuration, which is thought to have persisted through the early Pliocene warming from 5 Ma to 3 Ma (Kennett and Hodell, 1993[29]; Barrett, 1996[30]; McKay et al., 2008[31]).

During the Pliocene, mean global temperatures were 2-3ºC above pre-industrial values (Figure 3.6) with CO2 values less than 400 ppm and sea levels 15-25m above modern levels (Raymo et al., 1996[32]; Jansen et al., 2007[33], and references therein). The Antarctic margin also records Pliocene temperatures several degrees warmer than today in diatom-bearing coastal sediments (Harwood et al., 2000[34]) and offshore cores (Whitehead et al., 2005[35]).

3.8 Lithological column and inferred glacial proximity curve for the upper 600 m of the AND-1B drillcore recovered by the ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf Project (Naish et al., 2009[19]), compared with the continuous deep-sea oxygen-isotope record (Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005[36]) and the modelled contribution of Antarctic Ice Sheet to sea level change for the last 5 million years (Pollard and DeConto, 2009[20]). The “glacial proximity” column shows glacial surfaces of erosion, which mark boundaries of orbital-scale, glacimarine sedimentary cycles, and the prospect of cycles missing on account of erosion. The glacial proximity curve tracks the cycles themselves from inferred depositional environment - I = ice contact, P = proximal glacimarine, D = distal glacimarine, M = open marine. Pairs of images of the Antarctic Ice Sheet on the right show hypothesized glacial and interglacial states for the last million years and the period between 1 and ~5 Ma from Pollard and DeConto (2009[20]). Figure adapted by Tim Naish from Naish et al. (2009[19]).

A particularly instructive record comes from the ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf site, where over 1,200 m of strata dating back to 13 Ma were cored from a deep-water basin south of Ross Island (Naish et al., 2007[37]; 2008a,b, 2009). The record comprises many cycles of sedimentation, alternating between deposition beneath grounded ice (diamictite) and ice shelf ice (mudstone) in the last million years. However, from 1 to ~5 Ma depositional environments ranging from grounded ice (diamictite) to open water (diatomite) (Figure 3.8). The diatomite beds show the drill site to have been essentially ice-free at this time, i.e. no McMurdo Ice Shelf and hence no Ross Ice Shelf. The lack of buttressing from the loss of the Ross Ice Shelf in turn implies a much reduced West Antarctic Ice Sheet (Mercer, 1978[38]; Dupont and Alley, 2005a[39]). However geomorphological evidence, and the antiquity of high level surfaces in the Transantarctic Mountains (Sugden et al., 1993[40]), along with modelling Pliocene ice sheets (Hill et al., In Press), supports the persistence of an ice sheet in the East Antarctic interior through this period. A new ice sheet model by Pollard and DeConto (2009[20]) confirms the persistence of East Antarctic ice and the disappearance of the West Antarctic ice sheet during warm Pliocene times and even as recently as the MIS 31 interglacial stage a little over a million years ago (Figure 3.8).

Global cooling from around 3 Ma onwards (Ravelo et al., 2004[41]) led to the first big ice sheets on North America and NW Europe around 2.6 Ma (Shackleton et al., 1984[42]), enhancing the Earth’s climate response to orbital forcing with a 40,000 year cyclicity, and taking us to the Earth’s present intense “ice house” state. For the last million years (Figure 3.8) this has alternated between (i) longer (100,000 years) glacial cycles, when much of the Northern Hemisphere was ice-covered, global average temperature was around 5ºC colder, and sea level was approximately 120 m lower than today, and (ii) much shorter warm interglacial cycles like that of the last ~10,000 years, with sea levels near or slightly above those of the present.

References

  1. ↑ Crowley, T.J. and Kim, K. 1995. Comparison of long-term greenhouse projections with the Geologic Record, Geophysical Research Letters, 22, 933-936.
  2. ↑ Zachos, J.C., Wara, M.W., Bohaty, S., Delaney, M.L., Petrizzo, M.R., Brill, A., Bralower, T.J. and Premoli-Silva, I. 2003. A Transient Rise in Tropical Sea Surface Temperature During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Science, 302, 1551-1554.
  3. ↑ Zachos, J.C., Rohl, U., Schellenberg, S.A., Sluijs, A., Hodell, D.A., Kelly, D.C., Thomas, E., Nicolo, M., Raffi, I., Lourens, L.J., McCarren, H. and Kroon, D. 2005. Rapid Acidification of the Ocean During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Science, 308, 1611-1615.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Mayewski, P.A., Meredith, M.P., Summerhayes, C.P., Turner, J., Worby, A.P., Barrett, P.J., Casassa, G., Bertler, N.A.N., Bracegirdle, T.J., Naveira-Garabato, A.C., Bromwich, D.H., Campbell, H., Hamilton, G.H., Lyons, W.B., Maasch, K.A., Aoki, S., and Xiao, C. 2009. State of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Climate System (SASOCS), Reviews of Geophysics, 47, RG1003, doi:10.1029/2007RG000231.
  5. ↑ Francis, J.E., Marenssi, S., Levy, R., Hambrey, M., Thorn, V.T., Mohr, B., Brinkhuis, H., Warnaar, J., Zachos, J., Bohaty, S. and Deconto, R. 2008b. From Greenhouse to Icehouse - The Eocene/Oligocene in Antarctica. In: Florindo F, Siegert M (eds) Antarctic Climate Evolution, Developments in Earth and Environmental Science, Vol 8. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
  6. ↑ Miller, K.G., Wright, J.D., Katz, M.E., Browning, J.V., Cramer, B.S., Wade, B.S. and Mizintseva, S.F. 2008. A View of Antarctic Ice-Sheet Evolution from Sea-Level and Deep-Sea Isotope Changes During the Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic. In: Cooper AK, Barrett P, Stagg H, Storey B, Stump E, Wise W (eds) Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World. Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences, Santa Barbara, California, August 26 to September 1, 2007. Polar Research Board, National Research Council, U.S. Geological Survey.
  7. ↑ Deconto, R.M. and Pollard, D. 2003. Rapid Cenozoic glaciation of Antarctica induced by declining atmospheric CO2, Nature, 421, 245-249.
  8. ↑ Pagani, M., Zachos, J.C., Freeman, K.H., Tipple, B. and Bohaty, S. 2005. Marked Decline in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentrations During the Paleogene, Science, 309, 600-603.
  9. ↑ Siegert, M.J., Barrett, P., Deconto, R., Dunbar, R., Cofaigh, C.O., Passchier, S. and Naish, T.R. 2008. Recent Advances in Understanding Antarctic Climate Evolution, Antarctic Sci., 1, 1-13.
  10. ↑ Pearson, P.N. and Palmer, M.R. 2000. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 60 million years, Nature, 406, 695-699.
  11. ↑ Coxall, H., Wilson, P.A., Palike, H., Lear, C.H. and Backman, J. 2005. Rapid stepwise onset of Antarctic glaciation and deeper calcite compensation in the Pacific Ocean, Nature, 433, 53-57.
  12. ↑ Naish, T.R., Carter, L., Wolff, E. and Powel, R.D. 2008a. Chapter 11 - Late Pliocene-Pleistocene Antarctic climate variability at orbital and suborbital scale: Ice sheet, ocean and atmospheric interactions. In: Florindo F, Siegert M (eds) Antarctic Climate Evolution, Developments in Earth and Environmental Science, 8, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Barrett, P.J. 2007. Cenozoic climate and sea-level history of glacimarine strata off the Victoria Land coast, Cape Roberts Project, Antarctica. In: Hambrey, al. e (eds) Glacial Sedimentary Processes and Products. International Association of Sedimentologists, Special Publication.
  14. ↑ Deconto, R., Pollard, D. and Harwood, D. 2007. Sea ice feedback and Cenozoic evolution of Antarctic climate and ice sheets, Paleoceanography, 22, doi: PA3214, doi:10.1029/2006PA001350.
  15. ↑ Troedson, A.L. and Smellie, J.L. 2002. The Polonez Cove formation of King George Island, Antarctica: stratigraphy, facies and implications for mid-Cenozoic cryosphere development, Sedimentology, 49, 277-301.
  16. ↑ Naish, T.R., Woolfe, K.J., Barrett, P.J., Wilson, G.S., Atkins, C., Bohaty, S.M., Bucker, C.J., Claps, M., Davey, F.J., Dunbar, G.B., Dunn, A.G., Fielding, C.R., Florindo, F., Hannah, M.J., Harwood, D.M., Henrys, S.A., Krissek, L.A., Lavelle, M., Van Der Meer, J., McIntosh, W.C., Niessen, F., Passchier, S., Powell, R.D., Roberts, A.P., Sagnotti, L., Scherer, R.P., Strong, C.P., Talarico, F., Verosub, K.L., Villa, G., Watkins, D.K., Webb, P-N. and Wonik, T. 2001. Orbitally induced oscillations in the East Antarctic ice sheet at the Oligocene/Miocene boundary, Nature, 413, 719-723.
  17. ↑ Naish, T.R., Powell, R.D., Barrett, P.J., Levy, R.H., Henrys, S., Wilson, G.S., Krissek, L.A., Niessen, F., Pompilio, M., Scherer, R. and Talarico, F. 2008b. Late Neogene climate history of the Ross Embayment from the AND-1B drill core: culmination of three decades of Antarctic margin drilling. In: Cooper AK, Barrett PJ, Stagg H, Storey B, Stump E, Wise W (eds) Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World. Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 71-82.
  18. ↑ Huybrechts, P. 2009. West-side story of Antarctic ice, Nature, 458, 295-296.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Naish, T., Powell, R., Levy, R., Wilson, G., Scherer, R., Talarico, F., Krissek, L., Niessen, F., Pompilio, M., Wilson, T., Carter, L., Deconto, R., Huybers, P., McKay, R., Pollard, D., Ross, J., Winter, D., Barrett, P., Browne, G., Cody, R., Cowan, E., Crampton, J., Dunbar, G., Dunbar, N., Florindo, F., Gebhardt, C., Graham, I., Hannah, M., Hansaraj, D., Harwood, D., Helling, D., Henrys, S., Hinnov, L., Kuhn, G., Kyle, P., Läufer, A., Maffioli, P., Magens, D., Mandernack, K., McIntosh, W., Millan, C., Morin, R., Ohneiser, C., Paulsen, T., Persico, D., Raine, I., Reed, J., Riesselman, C., Sagnotti, L., Schmitt, D., Sjunneskog, C., Strong, P., Taviani, M., Vogel, S., Wilch, T. and Williams, T. 2009. Obliquity-paced Pliocene West Antarctic ice sheet oscillations, Nature, 458, 322-328.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Pollard, D. and Deconto, R. 2009. Modelling West Antarctic ice sheet growth and collapse through the past five million years, Nature, 458, 329-332.
  21. ↑ Dunbar, G.B., Naish, T.R., Barrett, P.J., Fielding, C.R. and Powell, R.D. 2008. Constraining the amplitude of late Oligocene bathymetric changes in western Ross Sea during orbitally-induced oscillations in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet: (1) Implications for glacimarine sequence stratigraphic models, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, In Press.
  22. ↑ Prebble, J.G., Hannah, M.J. and Barrett, P.J. 2006. Changing Oligocene climate recorded by palynomorphs from two glacio-eustatic sedimentary cycles, Cape Roberts Project, Victoria Land Basin, Antarctica, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 231, 58-70.
  23. ↑ Lewis, A.R., Marchant, D.R., Ashworth, A.C., Hemming, S.R. and Machlus, M.L. 2007. Major middle Miocene global climate change: Evidence from East Antarctica and the Transantarctic Mountains, GSA Bulletin, 119, 1449-1461.
  24. ↑ Ashworth, A.C., Lewis, A.R., Marchant, D.R., Askin, R.A., Cantrill, D.J., Francis, J.E., Leng, M.J., Newton, A.E., Raine, J.I., Williams, M. and A.P. W. 2007. The Neogene biota of the Transantarctic Mountains - Online Proceedings of the ISAES X, edited by A.K. Cooper and C.R. Raymond et al., USGS Open-File Report 2007-1047, Extended Abstract 071, 4 p.
  25. ↑ Francis, J.E. and Hill, R.S. 1996. Fossil plants from the Pliocene Sirius Group, Transantarctic Mountains: evidence for climate from growth rings and fossil leaves. Palaios, 11, 389-396.
  26. ↑ Ashworth, A.C. and Cantrill, D.J. 2004. Neogene vegetation of the Meyer Desert Formation (Sirius Group), Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 213, 65-82.
  27. ↑ Shackleton, N.J. and Kennett, J.P. 1975. Paleotemperature history of the Cenozoic and the initiation of Antarctic glaciation: oxygen and carbon isotope analysis in DSDP sites 277, 279 and 281. In: Kennett JP, Houtz RE (eds) Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 29. Washington (U.S. Government Printing Office), 743-755.
  28. ↑ Shevenell, A.E., Domack, E.W. and Kernan, G. 1996. Record of Holocene paleoclimate change along the Antarctic Peninsula: Evidence from glacial marine sediments, Lallemand Fjord, Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 130, 55-64.
  29. ↑ Kennett, J.P. and Hodell, D.A. 1993. Evidence for Relative Climatic Stability of Antarctica during the Early Pliocene: A Marine Perspective, Geografiska Annaler. Series A, Physical Geography, 75, 205-220.
  30. ↑ Barrett, P.J. 1996. Antarctic palaeoenvironment through Cenzoic times - a review, Terra Antartica, 3, 103-119.
  31. ↑ McKay, R.M., Barrett, P.J., Hannah, M.H. and Harper, M.A. 2008. Atmospheric transport and concentration of diatoms in surficial and glacial sediments of the Allan Hills, Transantarctic Mountains. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 260, 168-183.
  32. ↑ Raymo, M.E., Grant, B., Horowitz, M. and Rau, G.H. 1996. Mid-Pliocene warmth: stronger greenhouse and stronger conveyor, Marine Micropaleontology, 27, 313-326.
  33. ↑ Jansen, E.J., Overpeck, K.R., Briffa, J-C., Duplessy, F., Joos, V., Masson-Delmotte, D., Olago, B., Otto-Bliesner, W.R., Peltier, S., Rahmstorf, R., Ramesh, D., Raynaud, D., Rind, O., Solomina, R., Villalba, R. and Zhang, D. 2007. Palaeoclimate. In: Solomon SD, Qin M, Manning Z, Chen M, Marquis KB, Averyt M, Tignor, Miller HL (eds) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 433-497.
  34. ↑ Harwood, D.M., McMinn, A. and Quilty, P.G. 2000. Diatom biostratigraphy and age of the Pliocene Sorsdal Formation, Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, Antarctic Science, 12, 443-462.
  35. ↑ Whitehead, J.M., Wotherspoon, S. and Bohaty, S.M. 2005. Minimal Antarctic sea ice during the Pliocene, Geology, 33, 137-140.
  36. ↑ Lisiecki, L.E. and Raymo, M.E. 2005. A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic d18O records, Paleoceanography, 20, PA1003, doi:1010.1029/2004PA001071.
  37. ↑ Naish, T.R., Powell, R.D., Henrys, S., Wilson, G.S., Krissek, L.A., Niessen, F., Pompilio, M., Scherer, R., Talarico, F., Levy, R.H. and Pyne, A. 2007. New insights into Late Neogene (13-0Ma) climate history of Antarctica: Initial results from the ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) Project (AND-1B). In: A.K. Cooper, C.R. Raymond, al e (eds) A Keystone in a Changing World - Online Proceedings of the 10th ISAES, USGS Open-File Report 2007, 1-11.
  38. ↑ Mercer, J.H. 1978. West Antarctic ice sheet and CO2 greenhouse effect: a threat of disaster, Nature, 271, 321-325.
  39. ↑ Dupont, T., and Alley, R.B. 2005a. Assessment of the Importance of Ice-Shelf Buttressing to Ice-Sheet Flow, Geophysical Research Letters, 32(4), LO4503.
  40. ↑ Sugden, D.E., Marchant, D.R. and Denton, G.H. 1993. The case for a stable East Antarctic Ice Sheet: a special volume arising from the Vega Symposium, 26 April 1993 Stockholm, Geografiska Annaler, 75A, No. 4.
  41. ↑ Ravelo, A.C., Andreasen, D.H., Lyle, M., Olivarez Lyle, A. and Wara, M.W. 2004. Regional climate shifts caused by gradual global cooling in the Pliocene epoch, Nature, 429, 263-267.
  42. ↑ Shackleton, N.J., Backman, J., Zimmerman, H., Kent, D.V., Hall, M.A., Roberts, D.G., Schnitker, D., Baldauf, J.G., Desprairies, A., Homrighausen, R., Huddlestun, P., Keene, J.B., Kaltenback, A.J., Krumsiek, K.A.O., Morton, A.C., Murray, J.W. and Westberg-Smith, J. 1984. Oxygen isotope calibration of the onset of ice-rafting and history of glaciation in the North Atlantic region, Nature, 307, 620-623.
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