Abstract
During the last glacial period, the Laurentide Ice Sheet sporadically discharged huge numbers of icebergs through the Hudson Strait into the North Atlantic Ocean, leaving behind distinct layers of ice-rafted debris in the ocean sediments1,2,3. Perplexingly, these massive discharge events—Heinrich events—occurred during the cold portion of millennial-scale climate oscillations called Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles2,4. This is in contrast to the expectation that ice sheets expand in colder climates and shrink in warmer climates. Here we use an ice sheet model to show that the magnitude and timing of Heinrich events can be explained by the same processes that drive the retreat of modern marine-terminating glaciers. In our model, subsurface ocean warming associated with variations in the overturning circulation increases underwater melt along the calving face, triggering rapid margin retreat and increased iceberg discharge. On millennial timescales, isostatic adjustment causes the bed to uplift, isolating the terminus from subsurface warming and allowing the ice sheet to advance again until, at its most advanced position, it is poised for another Heinrich event. This mechanism not only explains the timing and magnitude of observed Heinrich events, but also suggests that ice sheets in contact with warming oceans may be vulnerable to catastrophic collapse even with little atmospheric warming.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Heinrich, H. Origin and consequences of cyclic ice rafting in the northeast Atlantic Ocean during the past 130,000 years. Quat. Res. 29, 142–152 (1988)
Bond, G. C. & Lotti, R. Iceberg discharges into the North Atlantic on millennial time scales during the last glaciation. Science 267, 1005–1010 (1995)
Hemming, S. R. Heinrich events: massive late Pleistocene detritus layers of the North Atlantic and their global climate imprint. Rev. Geophys. 42, RG1005 (2004)
Bond, G. et al. Correlations between climate records from North Atlantic sediments and Greenland ice. Nature 365, 143–147 (1993)
MacAyeal, D. R. Binge/purge oscillations of the Laurentide Ice Sheet as a cause of the North Atlantic’s Heinrich events. Paleoceanography 8, 775–784 (1993)
Clarke, G., Marshall, S. J., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Bilodeau, G. & Veiga-Pires, C. in Mechanisms of Global Climate Change at Millennial Time Scales (eds Clark, P. U., Webb, R. S. & Keigwin, L. D. ) 394 (1999)
Hulbe, C. L., MacAyeal, D. R., Denton, G. H., Kleman, J. & Lowell, T. V. Catastrophic ice shelf breakup as the source of Heinrich event icebergs. Paleoceanography 19, PA1004 (2004)
Marcott, S. A. et al. Ice-shelf collapse from subsurface warming as a trigger for Heinrich events. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 13415–13419 (2011)
Alvarez-Solas, J., Robinson, A., Montoya, M. & Ritz, C. Iceberg discharges of the last glacial period driven by oceanic circulation changes. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 16350–16354 (2013)
Shaffer, G., Olsen, S. M. & Bjerrum, C. J. Ocean subsurface warming as a mechanism for coupling Dansgaard-Oeschger climate cycles and ice-rafting events. Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, L24202 (2004)
Alvarez-Solas, J. & Ramstein, G. On the triggering mechanism of Heinrich events. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, E1359–E1360 (2011)
Hesse, R., Klauck, I., Khodabakhsh, S. & Piper, D. Continental slope sedimentation adjacent to an ice margin. III. The upper Labrador slope. Mar. Geol. 155, 249–276 (1999)
de Vernal, A., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Turon, J. L. & Matthiessen, J. Reconstruction of sea-surface temperature, salinity, and sea-ice cover in the northern North Atlantic during the Last Glacial Maximum based on dinocyst assemblages. Can. J. Earth Sci. 37, 725–750 (2000)
Holland, D. M., Thomas, R. H., de Young, B., Ribergaard, M. H. & Lyberth, B. Acceleration of Jakobshavn Isbrae triggered by warm subsurface ocean waters. Nat. Geosci. 1, 659–664 (2008)
Nick, F. M., Vieli, A., Howat, I. M. & Joughin, I. Large-scale changes in Greenland outlet glacier dynamics triggered at the terminus. Nat. Geosci. 2, 110–114 (2009)
Rignot, E., Koppes, M. & Velicogna, I. Rapid submarine melting of the calving faces of West Greenland glaciers. Nat. Geosci. 3, 187–191 (2010)
Straneo, F. & Heimbach, P. North Atlantic warming and the retreat of Greenland’s outlet glaciers. Nature 504, 36–43 (2013)
Murray, T. et al. Extensive retreat of Greenland tidewater glaciers, 2000–2010. Arct. Antarct. Alp. Res. 47, 427–447 (2015)
Bassis, J. N. & Walker, C. C. Upper and lower limits on the stability of calving glaciers from the yield strength envelope of ice. Proc. R. Soc. A 468, 913–931 (2012)
Bassis, J. N. & Jacobs, S. Diverse calving patterns linked to glacier geometry. Nat. Geosci. 6, 833–836 (2013)
DeConto, R. M. & Pollard, D. Contribution of Antarctica to past and future sea-level rise. Nature 531, 591–597 (2016)
Gomez, N., Mitrovica, J. X., Huybers, P. & Clark, P. U. Sea level as a stabilizing factor for marine-ice-sheet grounding lines. Nat. Geosci. 3, 850–853 (2010)
Konrad, H., Sasgen, I., Pollard, D. & Klemann, V. Potential of the solid-earth response for limiting long-term West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in a warming climate. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 432, 254–264 (2015)
Bueler, E., Lingle, C. S. & Brown, J. Fast computation of a viscoelastic deformable Earth model for ice-sheet simulations. Ann. Glaciol. 46, 97–105 (2007)
Mitrovica, J. & Forte, A. A new inference of mantle viscosity based upon joint inversion of convection and glacial isostatic adjustment data. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 225, 177–189 (2004)
Roberts, W. H. G., Valdes, P. J. & Payne, A. J. A new constraint on the size of Heinrich events from an iceberg/sediment model. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 386, 1–9 (2014)
Andrews, J. T. & Barber, D. C. Dansgaard-Oeschger events: is there a signal off the Hudson Strait Ice Stream? Quat. Sci. Rev. 21, 443–454 (2002)
Stoner, J., Channell, J., Hillaire-Marcel, C. & Kissel, C. Geomagnetic paleointensity and environmental record from Labrador Sea core MD95–2024: global marine sediment and ice core chronostratigraphy for the last 110 kyr. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 183, 161–177 (2000)
Rasmussen, S. O. et al. A stratigraphic framework for abrupt climatic change during the last glacial period based on three synchronized Greenland ice-core records: refining and extending the INTIMATE event stratigraphy. Quat. Sci. Rev. 106, 14–28 (2014)
Seierstad, I. K. et al. Consistently dated records from the Greenland GRIP, GISP2 and NGRIP ice cores for the past 104 ka reveal regional millennial-scale δ18O gradients with possible Heinrich event imprint. Quat. Sci. Rev. 106, 29–46 (2014)
Acknowledgements
We were supported by grant NSF-ANT 114085, Polar Programs grant PLR-1341568, NOAA Award NA13OAR4310096, grant NSF-OCE-PRF 1420902 and the Michigan Society of Fellows.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the design of the research study and manuscript preparation. J.N.B. developed the model and performed simulations. S.V.P. interpreted palaeoclimate records.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Additional information
Reviewer Information Nature thanks A. Vieli and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
This file contains Supplementary Figures 1-13, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Methods, a Supplementary Discussion and Supplementary References. (PDF 4492 kb)
Animation showing simulated Heinrich Events using the flowline model over the 120 ka simulation period.
Snapshots from the animation are shown in Figure 1 in main text. (MOV 3904 kb)
Animation showing 15 ka simulation of Heinrich Events using a regional model with 180 km channel width.
Behaviour is similar to the flowline model with ocean warming triggering a rapid retreat and acceleration. Retreat continues until the deepest portion of the sill isolates the terminus from the warm subsurface water or the pulse arrests at which point the ice stream advances again. (MOV 1099 kb)
Animation showing 15 ka simulation of Heinrich Events using a regional model with 100 km channel width.
Behaviour is similar to the flowline model with ocean warming triggering a rapid retreat and acceleration. Retreat continues until the deepest portion of the sill isolates the terminus from the warm subsurface water or the pulse arrests at which point the ice stream advances again. (MOV 1088 kb)
PowerPoint slides
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bassis, J., Petersen, S. & Mac Cathles, L. Heinrich events triggered by ocean forcing and modulated by isostatic adjustment. Nature 542, 332–334 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21069
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21069
This article is cited by
-
A mechanism for reconciling the synchronisation of Heinrich events and Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles
Nature Communications (2024)
-
Subsurface ocean warming preceded Heinrich Events
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Asian monsoon intensity coupled to Antarctic climate during Dansgaard–Oeschger 8 and Heinrich 4 glacial intervals
Communications Earth & Environment (2022)
-
Calcareous peloids in the north-western Arabian Sea: implications of late Quaternary marine sedimentation and paleoclimate
Arabian Journal of Geosciences (2022)
-
Glacial mode shift of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation by warming over the Southern Ocean
Communications Earth & Environment (2021)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.