sidd,
Thanks, I always learn something (or re-learn something I overlooked) from your posts.
Best, ASLR
Also, if anyone wants to correlate the iceberg data provided by Weber (2014) with the past retreats of the Amundsen Sea Embayment, ASE, marine glaciers, then the following linked reference provides paleo data (see attached plot [where GL = grounding line]). Such a correlation might give some rough idea about how fast future grounding line retreats could be for the remaining marine glaciers in the ASE:
James A. Smith , Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Gerhard Kuhn, Johann Phillip Klages, Alastair G.C. Graham, Robert D. Larter, Werner Ehrmann, Steven G. Moreton, Steffen Wiers, & Thomas Frederichs, (2014), "New constraints on the timing of West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the eastern Amundsen Sea since the Last Glacial Maximum", Global and Planetary Change, DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2014.07.015
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818114001489edit: For anyone needing the reference information for Weber et al (2014) it is as follows:
M. E. Weber, P. U. Clark, G. Kuhn, A. Timmermann, D. Sprenk, R. Gladstone, X. Zhang, G. Lohmann, L. Menviel, M. O. Chikamoto, T. Friedrich & C. Ohlwein, (2014), "Millennial-scale variability in Antarctic ice-sheet discharge during the last deglaciation", Nature, 510, 134–138, doi:10.1038/nature13397
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v510/n7503/abs/nature13397.htmlAbstract: "Our understanding of the deglacial evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) following the Last Glacial Maximum (26,000–19,000 years ago) is based largely on a few well-dated but temporally and geographically restricted terrestrial and shallow-marine sequences. This sparseness limits our understanding of the dominant feedbacks between the AIS, Southern Hemisphere climate and global sea level. Marine records of iceberg-rafted debris (IBRD) provide a nearly continuous signal of ice-sheet dynamics and variability. IBRD records from the North Atlantic Ocean have been widely used to reconstruct variability in Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, but comparable records from the Southern Ocean of the AIS are lacking because of the low resolution and large dating uncertainties in existing sediment cores. Here we present two well-dated, high-resolution IBRD records that capture a spatially integrated signal of AIS variability during the last deglaciation. We document eight events of increased iceberg flux from various parts of the AIS between 20,000 and 9,000 years ago, in marked contrast to previous scenarios which identified the main AIS retreat as occurring after meltwater pulse 1A and continuing into the late Holocene epoch. The highest IBRD flux occurred 14,600 years ago, providing the first direct evidence for an Antarctic contribution to meltwater pulse 1A. Climate model simulations with AIS freshwater forcing identify a positive feedback between poleward transport of Circumpolar Deep Water, subsurface warming and AIS melt, suggesting that small perturbations to the ice sheet can be substantially enhanced, providing a possible mechanism for rapid sea-level rise."