Response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to the last great global warming

However, the future response of the ice sheet to warming climate is recognized as one of the greatest uncertainties in sea-level projections. An understanding of past ice fluctuations can afford insight into ice-sheet response to climate change and thus is critical for improving sea-level predictions.

In this project, we will reconstruct the behavior of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the western Ross Sea region during the great global warming that ended the last ice age. Fluctuations in ice volume during this time period will allow us to characterize the factors that cause the ice sheet to advance and retreat and will enable us to distinguish between models that suggest repeated episodes of ice-sheet collapse vs those that indicate ice-sheet growth during warming climate.