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The Mode and Mechanism of the Last Deglaciation: Oceanic Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

W. F. Ruddiman  and
A. McIntyre
W. F. Ruddiman
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964
A. McIntyre
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 Queens College of the City University of New York, Flushing, New York 11367
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Abstract

Changes in ocean temperature, carbonate productivity, and ice-rafted detritus in the North Atlantic suggest that half of the Northern Hemisphere ice volume at the last glacial maximum had disappeared by 13,000 yr B.P., despite the still-extensive limits of the ice sheets. This early thinning of the ice sheets occurred during a time when summer insolation values were slowly rising but when pollen evidence south of the ice margins indicates cold, dry air masses. We infer that this rapid early ice disintegration (16,000–13,000 yr B.P.) was caused by oceanic mechanisms: (1) rising sea level, causing increased calving along ice margins; (2) the chilling of the sea-surface by icebergs and meltwater, reducing moisture extraction by the atmosphere and transport to the ice sheets; and (3) winter freezing of the low-salinity meltwater layer, suppressing local moisture extraction and the regional influx of moisture-bearing storms from lower latitudes in winter and hence starving the ice sheets. These oceanic feedback mechanisms were strongest from 16,000 to 13,000 yr B.P., and weaker but still active from that date until the end of deglaciation at 6000 yr B.P.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , September 1981 , pp. 125 - 134
Copyright
University of Washington

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