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Nature
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Onset of deglacial warming in West Antarctica driven by local orbital forcing

Naturevolume 500, pages440–444 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

The cause of warming in the Southern Hemisphere during the most recent deglaciation remains a matter of debate1,2. Hypotheses for a Northern Hemisphere trigger, through oceanic redistributions of heat, are based in part on the abrupt onset of warming seen in East Antarctic ice cores and dated to 18,000 years ago, which is several thousand years after high-latitude Northern Hemisphere summer insolation intensity began increasing from its minimum, approximately 24,000 years ago3,4. An alternative explanation is that local solar insolation changes cause the Southern Hemisphere to warm independently2,5. Here we present results from a new, annually resolved ice-core record from West Antarctica that reconciles these two views. The records show that 18,000 years ago snow accumulation in West Antarctica began increasing, coincident with increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, warming in East Antarctica and cooling in the Northern Hemisphere6 associated with an abrupt decrease in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation7. However, significant warming in West Antarctica began at least 2,000 years earlier. Circum-Antarctic sea-ice decline, driven by increasing local insolation, is the likely cause of this warming. The marine-influenced West Antarctic records suggest a more active role for the Southern Ocean in the onset of deglaciation than is inferred from ice cores in the East Antarctic interior, which are largely isolated from sea-ice changes.

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Figure 1: Antarctic Isotope Records.
Figure 2: Timing of rapid change in Antarctica.
Figure 3: Global records of deglaciation.
Figure 4: Antarctic δ18O response to sea-ice decrease.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by US National Science Foundation (NSF). The authors appreciate the support of the WAIS Divide Science Coordination Office (M. Twickler and J. Souney) for the collection and distribution of the WAIS Divide ice core; Ice Drilling and Design and Operations (K. Dahnert) for drilling; the National Ice Core Laboratory (B. Bencivengo) for curating the core; Raytheon Polar Services (M. Kippenhan) for logistics support in Antarctica; and the 109th New York Air National Guard for airlift in Antarctica. We also thank C. Buizert and S. Marcott for discussions. The following individual NSF grants supported this work: 0944197 (E.D.W., H. Conway); 1043092, 0537930 (E.J.S.); 0944348, 0944191, 0440817, 0440819, 0230396 (K.C.T.); 0538427, 0839093 (J.R.M.); 1043518 (E.J.B.); 1043500 (T.S.); 05379853, 1043167 (J.W.C.W.); 1043528, 0539578 (R.B.A.); 0539232 (K.M.C., G.D.C.); 1103403 (R.L.E., H. Conway); 0739780 (R.E.); 0637211 (G.H.); 0538553, 0839066 (J.C.-D.), 0538657, 1043421 (J.P.S.); 1043313 (M.K.S.); 0801490 (G.J.W). Other support came from a NASA NESSF award (T.J.F.), the USGS Climate and Land Use Change Program (G.D.C., J.J.F.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41230524 to H. Cheng) and the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRFF2011-08 to X.W.).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Affiliations for participants:

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195, Washington, USA

    T. J. Fudge, Eric J. Steig, Bradley R. Markle, Spruce W. Schoenemann, Qinghua Ding, Howard Conway, Peter Neff, Andrew J. Schauer & Edwin D. Waddington

  2. Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195, Washington, USA

    Eric J. Steig & Qinghua Ding

  3. Desert Research Institute, Nevada System of Higher Education, Reno, 89512, Nevada, USA

    Kendrick C. Taylor, Joseph R. McConnell, Olivia J. Maselli, Kenneth C. McGwire & Michael Sigl

  4. College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331, Oregon, USA

    Edward J. Brook, Jon S. Edwards, James E. Lee & Logan E. Mitchell

  5. Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Todd Sowers, Richard B. Alley, John M. Fegyveresi & Donald E. Voigt

  6. Department of Geological Sciences and Department of Environmental Studies, Boulder, 80309, Colorado, USA

    James W. C. White

  7. INSTAAR, University of Colorado, Boulder, 80309, Colorado, USA

    James W. C. White & Bruce H. Vaughn

  8. Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Richard B. Alley, John M. Fegyveresi & Donald E. Voigt

  9. Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Hai Cheng

  10. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55455, Minnesota, USA

    Hai Cheng & R. Lawrence Edwards

  11. US Geological Survey, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Lakewood, 80225, Colorado, USA

    Gary D. Clow

  12. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota 57007, USA.,

    Jihong Cole-Dai & David Ferris

  13. Department of Geography, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720, USA

    Kurt M. Cuffey

  14. Department of Imaging and Applied Physics, Curtin University, Perth, 6102, Western Australia, Australia

    Ross Edwards

  15. US Geological Survey, Denver, 80225, Colorado, USA

    Joan J. Fitzpatrick

  16. Ice Drilling Design and Operations, Space Science Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Jay Johnson & Nicolai Mortensen

  17. US Geologic Survey, National Ice Core Laboratory, Denver, 80225, Colorado, USA

    Geoffrey Hargreaves

  18. EMECH Designs, Brooklyn, 53521, Wisconsin, USA

    William Mason

  19. Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, 6012, New Zealand

    Peter Neff

  20. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92037, California, USA

    Anais J. Orsi & Jeffrey P. Severinghaus

  21. Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.,

    Trevor J. Popp

  22. Department of Geology and Physics, Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan 49783, USA.,

    Matthew K. Spencer

  23. Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798.,

    Xianfeng Wang

  24. Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA.,

    Gifford J. Wong

Consortia

WAIS Divide Project Members

  • T. J. Fudge
  • , Eric J. Steig
  • , Bradley R. Markle
  • , Spruce W. Schoenemann
  • , Qinghua Ding
  • , Kendrick C. Taylor
  • , Joseph R. McConnell
  • , Edward J. Brook
  • , Todd Sowers
  • , James W. C. White
  • , Richard B. Alley
  • , Hai Cheng
  • , Gary D. Clow
  • , Jihong Cole-Dai
  • , Howard Conway
  • , Kurt M. Cuffey
  • , Jon S. Edwards
  • , R. Lawrence Edwards
  • , Ross Edwards
  • , John M. Fegyveresi
  • , David Ferris
  • , Joan J. Fitzpatrick
  • , Jay Johnson
  • , Geoffrey Hargreaves
  • , James E. Lee
  • , Olivia J. Maselli
  • , William Mason
  • , Kenneth C. McGwire
  • , Logan E. Mitchell
  • , Nicolai Mortensen
  • , Peter Neff
  • , Anais J. Orsi
  • , Trevor J. Popp
  • , Andrew J. Schauer
  • , Jeffrey P. Severinghaus
  • , Michael Sigl
  • , Matthew K. Spencer
  • , Bruce H. Vaughn
  • , Donald E. Voigt
  • , Edwin D. Waddington
  • , Xianfeng Wang
  •  & Gifford J. Wong

Contributions

The manuscript was written by T.J.F., E.J.S. and B.R.M. K.C.T. organized the WAIS Divide Project. T.J.F., K.C.T and T.J.P. made the electrical measurements and developed the electrical timescale with K.C.M. E.J.S., J.W.C.W., A.J.S., P.N., B.H.V. and S.W.S. measured the stable-isotope record. J.R.M., M.S., O.J.M. and R.E. developed the chemistry timescale and measured Na. E.J.B., T.S., L.E.M., J.S.E. and J.E.L. made the methane measurements. G.D.C. and K.M.C. measured the borehole temperature profile. J.C.-D. and D.F. provided an independent timescale for the brittle ice. Q.D., S.W.S. and E.J.S. performed the climate modelling. T.J.F., E.D.W., H. Conway and K.M.C. performed the ice-flow modelling to determine the accumulation rate. H. Cheng, R.L.E., X.W., J.P.S. and T.J.F. made comparisons with the Hulu cave timescale. M.K.S., J.J.F., J.M.F., D.E.V. and R.B.A. examined the physical properties of the core. W.M., J.J. and N.M. designed the drill. G.H. designed core-processing techniques. A.J.O., B.H.V., D.E.V., K.C.T., T.J.P. and G.J.W. led collection and processing of the core in the field.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toT. J. Fudge.

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Competing interests

The author declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Lists of participants and their affiliations appear at the end of the paper.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Text and Data, Supplementary References and Supplementary Figures 1-10. (PDF 1916 kb)

Supplementary Data

This file contains the data and model output used in figures 1-4. (XLSX 2222 kb)

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WAIS Divide Project Members. Onset of deglacial warming in West Antarctica driven by local orbital forcing.Nature500, 440–444 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12376

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Editorial Summary

Local conditions drive Antarctic deglaciations

There are two main theories vying to explain Antarctic climate changes at the time of Northern Hemisphere deglaciations. One holds that changes in ocean circulation — driven by changes in Northern Hemisphere insolation — govern Southern Hemisphere climate. The other argues for a dominant influence from local changes in insolation. It has been difficult to differentiate between the two because of the low resolution of many ice-core records. Now Tyler Fudge and colleagues present an annually resolved ice-core record from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide site and reveal an increase in snowfall about 18,000 years ago, preceded by a distinct warming 20,000 years ago. Changes in local insolation and nearby sea ice appear to be the cause of the early warming, suggesting that East and West Antarctica may respond to different deglacial forcings.

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