Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago

Brice Rea; Andrew Newton; Rachel Lamb; Rachel Harding; Grant R.  Bigg; Phil  Rose; Matteo Spagnolo; Mads Huuse; John M.L.  Cater; Stuart  Archer; Francis Buckley; Maral  Halliyeva; Jane Huuse; David G.  Cornwell; Simon Brocklehurst; John A.  Howell

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aar8327

Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago

Brice Rea, Andrew Newton, Rachel Lamb, Rachel Harding, Grant R. Bigg, Phil Rose, Matteo Spagnolo, Mads Huuse, John M.L. Cater, Stuart Archer, Francis Buckley, Maral Halliyeva, Jane Huuse, David G. Cornwell, Simon Brocklehurst, John A. Howell

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Geometries of Early Pleistocene [2.58 to 0.78 million years (Ma) ago] ice sheets in northwest Europe are poorly constrained but are required to improve our understanding of past ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere coupling. Ice sheets are believed to have changed in their response to orbital forcing, becoming, from about 1.2 Ma ago, volumetrically larger and longer-lived. We present a multiproxy data set for the North Sea, extending to over a kilometer below the present-day seafloor, which demonstrates spatially extensive glaciation of the basin from the earliest Pleistocene. Ice sheets repeatedly entered the North Sea, south of 60°N, in water depths of up to ~250 m from 2.53 Ma ago and subsequently grounded in the center of the basin, in deeper water, from 1.87 Ma ago. Despite lower global ice volumes, these ice sheets were near comparable in spatial extent to those of the Middle and Late Pleistocene but possibly thinner and moving over slippery (low basal resistance) beds.

Original language	English
Article number	eaar8327
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	4
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar8327
Publication status	Published - 13 Jun 2018

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10.1126/sciadv.aar8327Licence: CC BY

Geophysics
Mitchell, N., Mecklenburgh, J., Rutter, E., Huuse, M., Finch, E., Chandler, M., Chang, Y., Zhao, Z., Shi, W., Bashir, Y., Ardo, B., Newton, A., Cox, D., Lloyd, C., Putuhena, H., Sarkar, A., Nnorom, S., Owolabi, O., Malah, M., Soutter, E., Dunlevy, E., Balila, A., Alhammami, S., Olobayo, O., Serié, C., Chenrai, P., Sharples, A., Le, A., Lamb, R., Harding, R., Gulmammadov, R., Calves, G., Bureau, D. & Muniz Pichel, L.
Project: Research
Geomorphology
Mitchell, N., Jones, M., Covey-Crump, S., Jerrett, R., Huuse, M., Finch, E., Bahia, R., Zhao, Z. & Chang, Y.
Project: Research
Basins, stratigraphy and sedimentary processes
Brunt, R., Redfern, J., Huuse, M., Schroeder, S., Hodgetts, D., Hollis, C., Kane, I., Jerrett, R., Taylor, K., Flint, S., Gawthorpe, R., Bowman, M. & Bulot, L. G.
Project: Research

Cite this

Rea, B., Newton, A., Lamb, R., Harding, R., Bigg, G. R., Rose, P., Spagnolo, M., Huuse, M., Cater, J. M. L., Archer, S., Buckley, F., Halliyeva, M., Huuse, J., Cornwell, D. G., Brocklehurst, S., & Howell, J. A. (2018). Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago. Science Advances, 4(6), [eaar8327]. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar8327

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title = "Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago",

abstract = "Geometries of Early Pleistocene [2.58 to 0.78 million years (Ma) ago] ice sheets in northwest Europe are poorly constrained but are required to improve our understanding of past ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere coupling. Ice sheets are believed to have changed in their response to orbital forcing, becoming, from about 1.2 Ma ago, volumetrically larger and longer-lived. We present a multiproxy data set for the North Sea, extending to over a kilometer below the present-day seafloor, which demonstrates spatially extensive glaciation of the basin from the earliest Pleistocene. Ice sheets repeatedly entered the North Sea, south of 60°N, in water depths of up to ~250 m from 2.53 Ma ago and subsequently grounded in the center of the basin, in deeper water, from 1.87 Ma ago. Despite lower global ice volumes, these ice sheets were near comparable in spatial extent to those of the Middle and Late Pleistocene but possibly thinner and moving over slippery (low basal resistance) beds.",

author = "Brice Rea and Andrew Newton and Rachel Lamb and Rachel Harding and Bigg, {Grant R.} and Phil Rose and Matteo Spagnolo and Mads Huuse and Cater, {John M.L.} and Stuart Archer and Francis Buckley and Maral Halliyeva and Jane Huuse and Cornwell, {David G.} and Simon Brocklehurst and Howell, {John A.}",

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doi = "10.1126/sciadv.aar8327",

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T1 - Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago

AU - Rea, Brice

AU - Newton, Andrew

AU - Lamb, Rachel

AU - Harding, Rachel

AU - Bigg, Grant R.

AU - Rose, Phil

AU - Spagnolo, Matteo

AU - Huuse, Mads

AU - Cater, John M.L.

AU - Archer, Stuart

AU - Buckley, Francis

AU - Halliyeva, Maral

AU - Huuse, Jane

AU - Cornwell, David G.

AU - Brocklehurst, Simon

AU - Howell, John A.

PY - 2018/6/13

Y1 - 2018/6/13

N2 - Geometries of Early Pleistocene [2.58 to 0.78 million years (Ma) ago] ice sheets in northwest Europe are poorly constrained but are required to improve our understanding of past ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere coupling. Ice sheets are believed to have changed in their response to orbital forcing, becoming, from about 1.2 Ma ago, volumetrically larger and longer-lived. We present a multiproxy data set for the North Sea, extending to over a kilometer below the present-day seafloor, which demonstrates spatially extensive glaciation of the basin from the earliest Pleistocene. Ice sheets repeatedly entered the North Sea, south of 60°N, in water depths of up to ~250 m from 2.53 Ma ago and subsequently grounded in the center of the basin, in deeper water, from 1.87 Ma ago. Despite lower global ice volumes, these ice sheets were near comparable in spatial extent to those of the Middle and Late Pleistocene but possibly thinner and moving over slippery (low basal resistance) beds.

AB - Geometries of Early Pleistocene [2.58 to 0.78 million years (Ma) ago] ice sheets in northwest Europe are poorly constrained but are required to improve our understanding of past ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere coupling. Ice sheets are believed to have changed in their response to orbital forcing, becoming, from about 1.2 Ma ago, volumetrically larger and longer-lived. We present a multiproxy data set for the North Sea, extending to over a kilometer below the present-day seafloor, which demonstrates spatially extensive glaciation of the basin from the earliest Pleistocene. Ice sheets repeatedly entered the North Sea, south of 60°N, in water depths of up to ~250 m from 2.53 Ma ago and subsequently grounded in the center of the basin, in deeper water, from 1.87 Ma ago. Despite lower global ice volumes, these ice sheets were near comparable in spatial extent to those of the Middle and Late Pleistocene but possibly thinner and moving over slippery (low basal resistance) beds.

U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.aar8327

DO - 10.1126/sciadv.aar8327

M3 - Article

VL - 4

JO - Science Advances

JF - Science Advances

SN - 2375-2548

IS - 6

M1 - eaar8327

ER -

Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago

Abstract

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Geophysics

Geomorphology

Basins, stratigraphy and sedimentary processes

Cite this