Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Jones RS
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4674764 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Nature communications 20151126
Outlet glaciers grounded on a bed that deepens inland and extends below sea level are potentially vulnerable to 'marine ice sheet instability'. This instability, which may lead to runaway ice loss, has been simulated in models, but its consequences have not been directly observed in geological records. Here we provide new surface-exposure ages from an outlet of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that reveal rapid glacier thinning occurred approximately 7,000 years ago, in the absence of large environm ...[more]