4.8 Article

60 million years of glaciation in the Transantarctic Mountains

Journal

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33310-z

Keywords

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Funding

  1. Polar Geospatial Center under NSF-OPP award [1543501, 1810976, 1542736, 1559691, 1043681, 1541332, 0753663, 1548562, 1238993]
  2. NERC [NE/R014574/1]
  3. Scottish Association for Environment, Geoscience and Society (SAGES)
  4. NASA [NNX10AN61G]
  5. Direct For Computer & Info Scie & Enginr
  6. Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) [1541332] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
  7. Directorate For Geosciences
  8. Office of Polar Programs (OPP) [1542736, 1559691, 0753663, 1543501] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
  9. Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC)
  10. Direct For Computer & Info Scie & Enginr [1810976] Funding Source: National Science Foundation

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Based on our research on the formation history of Antarctic glaciers, we found that Antarctica was covered by ice sheets around 83 million years ago, and the formation of glaciers may have occurred even earlier. Different types of glaciers, including temperate and cold-based ones, have existed in Antarctica for millions of years. These findings highlight the long history of glaciation in Antarctica and suggest the presence of glaciers even during the Early-Cenozoic greenhouse world.
The Antarctic continent reached its current polar location similar to 83 Ma and became shrouded by ice sheets similar to 34 Ma, coincident with dramatic global cooling at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. However, it is not known whether the first Antarctic glaciers formed immediately prior to this or were present significantly earlier. Here we show that mountain glaciers were likely present in the Transantarctic Mountains during the Late Palaeocene (similar to 60-56 Ma) and middle Eocene (similar to 48-40 Ma). Temperate (warm-based) glaciers were prevalent during the Late Eocene (similar to 40-34 Ma) and, in reduced numbers, during the Oligocene (similar to 34-23 Ma), before larger, likely cold-based, ice masses (including ice sheets) dominated. Some temperate mountain glaciers were present during the Miocene Climatic Optimum (similar to 15 Ma), before a widespread switch to cold-based glaciation. Our findings highlight the longevity of glaciation in Antarctica and suggest that glaciers were present even during the Early-Cenozoic greenhouse world.

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