HR: 0800h
AN: PP51A-1332    [Abstracts]
TI: Deciphering Neogene Antarctic climate history is certainly important, but documenting Pleistocene events may be more relevant to prediction
AU: * Scherer, R P
EM: reed@geol.niu.edu
AF: Geology & Environmental Geosciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115 United States
AB: This AGU session description states, "Scenarios for future climate change indicate that within the next 100 to 400 years, global annual average surface temperatures will increase by several degrees. The Neogene represents the last time in Earth history when comparable warming occurred.The aim of the session is to synthesize results from marine and terrestrial proxy data for the Miocene and Pliocene and to combine them with outputs derived from numerical climate and ice-sheet models." Yes, Miocene and Pliocene proxies are critically important to understanding Cenozoic stepwise cooling and the polar climatic isolation of Antarctica. But at least equally important is understanding Antarctic climate dynamics during Pleistocene warm interglacials. These did not dramatically affect the East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS), but the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) has a history of Pleistocene advance and retreat well beyond its current configuration. Such changes have global consequences for sea-level, bottom water formation, and ocean circulation. The WAIS is the most dynamic of the world's existing large ice sheets, and it is the source of the largest ice shelves. Global warming may already be affecting the stability of the WAIS and the ice shelves. I will review geologic evidence for Quaternary warm interglacials in the Antarctic (e.g., MIS- 5e, MIS-11, MIS-31, others), including subglacial sediments, drill cores from the Antarctic marginal seas, Southern Ocean sediments, marine deposits in outcrop, sea-level records, and Antarctic terrestrial deposits including lake cores. These will be discussed in the context of WAIS and Ross Ice Shelf history and dynamics.
DE: 9310 Antarctica
DE: 3030 Micropaleontology
DE: 1827 Glaciology (1863)
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting