Slowdown in Antarctic mass loss from solid Earth and sea-level feedbacks

E Larour; H Seroussi; S Adhikari; E Ivins; L Caron; M Morlighem; N Schlegel

doi:10.1126/science.aav7908

Slowdown in Antarctic mass loss from solid Earth and sea-level feedbacks

Science. 2019 Jun 7;364(6444):eaav7908. doi: 10.1126/science.aav7908. Epub 2019 Apr 25.

Authors

E Larour^{1

2}, H Seroussi³, S Adhikari³, E Ivins³, L Caron³, M Morlighem⁴, N Schlegel³

Affiliations

¹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. eric.larour@jpl.nasa.gov.
² Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, Croul Hall, Irvine, CA, USA.

PMID: 31023893
DOI: 10.1126/science.aav7908

Abstract

Geodetic investigations of crustal motions in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica and models of ice-sheet evolution in the past 10,000 years have recently highlighted the stabilizing role of solid-Earth uplift on polar ice sheets. One critical aspect, however, that has not been assessed is the impact of short-wavelength uplift generated by the solid-Earth response to unloading over short time scales close to ice-sheet grounding lines (areas where the ice becomes afloat). Here, we present a new global simulation of Antarctic evolution at high spatiotemporal resolution that captures all solid Earth processes that affect ice sheets and show a projected negative feedback in grounding line migration of 38% for Thwaites Glacier 350 years in the future, or 26.8% reduction in corresponding sea-level contribution.