Cryospheric science articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    On glacial/interglacial timescales CO2 might have been sequestered from the atmosphere and stored within the deep ocean. Here, the authors show that an old and CO2-rich water mass occupied the glacial South Pacific between ∼2,000 and 4,300 m water depth and was influenced by volcanic CO2from mid-ocean ridges.

    • T. A. Ronge
    • , R. Tiedemann
    •  & L. Wacker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A range of mechanisms has been proposed for large-scale folding in polar ice sheets. Here, using new three-dimensional reconstructions of such folds in the onset region of the Greenland Petermann Glacier, the authors show that these formed due to flow convergence and the high mechanical anisotropy of ice.

    • Paul D. Bons
    • , Daniela Jansen
    •  & Ilka Weikusat

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reconstructing past ocean conditions, particularly current velocity, is difficult due to a lack of available proxies. Here, the authors present a set of well-preserved buried iceberg scours from the mid-Norwegian slope, from which they are able to infer North Atlantic current speeds during the third-last glacial.

    • Andrew M. W. Newton
    • , Mads Huuse
    •  & Simon H. Brocklehurst

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ice streams are fundamental to ice sheet dynamics, but the mechanisms controlling their flow remain elusive. Here, the authors perform macro- and microscale analyses of mega-scale glacial lineations, which indicate a continuously accreting, shallow-deforming bed during ice stream flow.

    • Matteo Spagnolo
    • , Emrys Phillips
    •  & Izabela Szuman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Collection data suggest the proportion of iron-based meteorites recovered from Antarctica is significantly lower than the rest of the world. Here, the authors propose a mechanism to explain this discrepancy, showing that iron meteorites heated by solar energy can move down through the ice, not to re-emerge.

    • G. W. Evatt
    • , M. J. Coughlan
    •  & I. D. Abrahams

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet's response to future warming is hindered by a lack of historical evidence. Here, based on geomorphological evidence from and cosmogenic dating of Ellsworth Mountains' deposits, the authors show that at least a regional ice sheet survived Pleistocene interglacial cycles.

    • Andrew S. Hein
    • , John Woodward
    •  & David E. Sugden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantifying Greenland's future contribution to sea level requires accurate portrayal of its outlet glaciers in ice sheet simulations. Here, the authors show that outlet glacier flow can be captured if ice thickness is well constrained and vertical shearing as well as membrane stresses are included in the model.

    • Andy Aschwanden
    • , Mark A. Fahnestock
    •  & Martin Truffer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of pan-Arctic Ocean ice shelves during peak glacials was proposed in the 1970s, an idea that has been disputed due to lack of evidence. Here, the authors present geophysical mapping data supporting the presence of such an ice shelf during the peak of the penultimate glaciation ∼140–160 ka.

    • Martin Jakobsson
    • , Johan Nilsson
    •  & Igor Semiletov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methane release across the Arctic continental shelf has been attributed to modern dissociation of gas hydrate, accelerated by ocean warming. Here, the authors show that thermogenic methane was stored as subglacial gas hydrate during the last glaciation, and subsequently released following ice sheet retreat.

    • Alexey Portnov
    • , Sunil Vadakkepuliyambatta
    •  & Alun Hubbard

  • Article |

    How volcanoes and the cryosphere interact is of interest for understanding hazard mitigation at ice-clad volcanoes and for paleoclimate studies. Here, the authors provide quantitative details from an eruption in Kamchatka, demonstrating that two kinds of lava, ′a′a and pahoehoe, produced different snowpack responses.

    • B. R. Edwards
    • , A. Belousov
    •  & M. Belousova

  • Article |

    Reconstructing past sea ice coverage in the Arctic is important for future climate predictions. Here, the authors present a new sea ice record from the Eurasian sector of the Arctic Ocean and report that Arctic sea ice reached its modern winter maximum for the first time 2.6 million years ago.

    • Jochen Knies
    • , Patricia Cabedo-Sanz
    •  & Antoni Rosell-Melé

  • Article |

    The Antarctic ice sheets contribution to rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age remains a matter of debate. Here, the authors present a suite of ice-sheet modelling experiments and conclude that the retreating Antarctic ice sheet may have contributed as much as 0.7 m per century to meltwater pulse 1A.

    • N. R. Golledge
    • , L. Menviel
    •  & R. H. Levy

  • Article |

    The delivery of meltwater to the base of the Greenland Ice Sheet has been shown to regulate ice flow, yet the role of soft basal sediment is unknown. Here, the authors use a three-dimensional ice sheet model to assess the impact of seasonal meltwater delivery on subglacial sediment shear strength and ice flow.

    • M. Bougamont
    • , P. Christoffersen
    •  & S. P. Carter

  • Article |

    Detailed sea-level records beyond ~150,000 years ago are limited. Here, the authors present a radiometrically constrained sea-level record from the Red Sea, spanning five glacial cycles and examine sea-level rise rates and the effects of past global ice-volume changes on monsoon intensity.

    • K. M. Grant
    • , E. J. Rohling
    •  & F. Williams

  • Article |

    The mechanism behind the severely cold winters experienced by the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in recent years is not fully understood. Here, the authors combine observational analyses and model experiments to reveal a dynamic connection between Arctic sea-ice cover and the polar stratosphere.

    • Baek-Min Kim
    • , Seok-Woo Son
    •  & Jin-Ho Yoon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Claims that the end-Ordovician Earth was characterized by giant ice sheets, yet paradoxically warm oceans and elevated CO2 levels are open to debate. Here, Ghienne et al. examine sedimentary records from low and high palaeolatitude settings and propose a revision of the mechanisms for end-Ordovician events.

    • Jean-François Ghienne
    • , André Desrochers
    •  & Jan Veizer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is under threat from rising ocean temperatures, yet its response to past temperature change is poorly known. Felis et al. show that the GBR experienced a much steeper temperature gradient during the last deglaciation, suggesting it may be more resilient than previously thought.

    • Thomas Felis
    • , Helen V. McGregor
    •  & Jody M. Webster

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Glacial meltwaters may help fertilize the iron-limited Polar Oceans, yet the contribution is poorly constrained. Hawkings et al.monitor iron fluxes during a full-melt season in Greenland, and propose that ice sheets provide highly reactive and potentially bioavailable iron, comparable with aeolian dust fluxes.

    • Jon R. Hawkings
    • , Jemma L. Wadham
    •  & Jon Telling

  • Article |

    Whether the origins of inner gorges were fluvial or subglacial has been debated for decades. Here, Jansen et al. present new evidence, in the form of a suite of cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages and a deglaciation map, which suggests a subglacial meltwater origin for inner gorges in northern Sweden.

    • J.D. Jansen
    • , A.T. Codilean
    •  & S. Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether all rapid climate events during the last ice age impacted the global carbon cycle is not clearly understood. Ahn and Brook present a high-resolution record of atmospheric CO2 from Antarctica and suggest that only Greenland stadials associated with massive iceberg discharge influenced atmospheric CO2.

    • Jinho Ahn
    •  & Edward J. Brook

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Signs of instability in the Antarctic Larsen C ice shelf have raised concerns that it might soon collapse like its northern neighbour Larsen B. Kulessa et al.combine an ice-shelf model with satellite and geophysical data to show that despite dynamic similarities, Larsen C is presently stabilized by marine ice.

    • Bernd Kulessa
    • , Daniela Jansen
    •  & Peter R. Sammonds

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation strongly influences Northern Hemisphere climate, yet its primary driver is poorly understood. Knudsen et al.analyse proxy records from the past ~450 years and show that external forcing has dominated control of the oscillation since the termination of the Little Ice Age.

    • Mads Faurschou Knudsen
    • , Bo Holm Jacobsen
    •  & Jesper Olsen

  • Article |

    The microbes responsible for releasing the potent greenhouse gas methane from thawing permafrost remain largely unknown. Mondav and Woodcroft et al. investigate methane flux across a thaw gradient in Sweden and recover a near-complete genome of the dominant methanogen Candidatus ‘Methanoflorens stordalenmirensis’.

    • Rhiannon Mondav
    • , Ben J. Woodcroft
    •  & Gene W. Tyson

  • Article |

    The global monsoon is considered to have provided an important interhemispheric climate link during deglaciation, but direct evidence is lacking. Here, climate evidence from speleothems suggests that rapid latitudinal displacements of the Australasian monsoon play a key role in deglacial warming.

    • Linda K. Ayliffe
    • , Michael K. Gagan
    •  & Bambang W. Suwargadi

  • Article |

    Totten Glacier discharges the largest volume of ice in East Antarctica, but the mechanisms causing its recent thinning are relatively unknown. Khazendar et al.combine remote-sensing data with high-resolution ice–ocean modelling to link this recent thinning to reduced sea ice production in polynyas.

    • A. Khazendar
    • , M.P. Schodlok
    •  & M.R. van den Broeke

  • Article |

    Alaskan mountain glaciers are losing ice and contribute to sea level rise, but contributions from specific ice-loss mechanisms are not known. Here, calving losses in Central Alaska are found to equal 36% of the net regional mass change each year and regional flux is dictated largely by snow accumulation rates.

    • Evan W. Burgess
    • , Richard R. Forster
    •  & Christopher F. Larsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The calving of the Mertz Glacier occurred in 2010 in East Antarctica, brought on by the re-positioning of a large iceberg. Using satellite data, this study shows a reduction in sea ice production following the calving, interpreted as a potential regime shift towards reduced sea ice production for the coming decades.

    • T. Tamura
    • , G.D. Williams
    •  & K.I. Ohshima

  • Article |

    The Younger Dryas cold period is thought to have occurred mainly due to the release of fresh water into the North Atlantic from the glacial Lake Agassiz. Here, sedimentary and geochemical data from the central Arctic Ocean support the hypothesis of a northward route drainage event from Lake Agassiz during the Younger Dryas.

    • Christelle Not
    •  & Claude Hillaire-Marcel

  • Article |

    Antarctic bottom water is important for the global climate system, but its main source in East Antarctica was altered recently because of calving of the Mertz Glacier Tongue. The authors model this event and find large changes in dense water exports from the region.

    • Kazuya Kusahara
    • , Hiroyasu Hasumi
    •  & Guy D. Williams

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