GC10-Pliocene-8, updated on 05 Apr 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-gc10-pliocene-8
The warm Pliocene: Bridging the geological data and modelling communities
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Constraining the amplitude of Antarctic Ice Sheet change during warm intervals of the Pliocene

Edward Gasson1, Carrie Lear2, Amy Sparkes2, Ruthie Halberstadt3, Rob DeConto3, Matt Trevers4, Tony Payne4, and David Pollard5
Edward Gasson et al.
  • 1University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Cornwall Campus, UK
  • 2School of Earth and Environmental Science, Cardiff University, UK
  • 3Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
  • 4School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK
  • 5Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA

Despite a major effort to constrain peak sea level during the mid-Pliocene warm period, uncertainties remain large. This interval is of interest because of the analogous CO2 concentration to present day and because of the potential retreat of a large portion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The usefulness of this period to constrain ice sheet model physics is limited by these large uncertainties on peak sea level. Here we discuss efforts to produce a new record of the amplitude of sea level change from interglacial to glacial periods during the early and mid-Pliocene, which have lower uncertainties than peak sea level. We combine this effort with new climate and ice sheet model simulations of the glacial to interglacial cycle for ice sheets in both hemispheres. We discuss how this work will constrain the magnitude of Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat during warm intervals of the mid-Pliocene and how we use these constraints to discriminate between different ice sheet model physics.

How to cite: Gasson, E., Lear, C., Sparkes, A., Halberstadt, R., DeConto, R., Trevers, M., Payne, T., and Pollard, D.: Constraining the amplitude of Antarctic Ice Sheet change during warm intervals of the Pliocene, The warm Pliocene: Bridging the geological data and modelling communities, Leeds, United Kingdom, 23–26 Aug 2022, GC10-Pliocene-8, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-gc10-pliocene-8, 2022.