Pine Island Glacier
The loss of ice on Pine Island Glacier makes up about a quarter of Antarctica’s melt, and a new study pinpointed the source of its fast retreat to the El Nino event of 1945. Using dating techniques, an international team of researchers studied sediment cores from the glacier’s floating ice shelf. They discovered that the initial cavity of water beneath the ice began around 1945, and the final detachment occurred around 1970.
Authors:
J. A. Smith, T. J. Andersen, M. Shortt, A. M. Gaffney, M. Truffer, T. P. Stanton, R. Bindschadler, P. Dutrieux, A. Jenkins, C.-D. Hillenbrand, W. Ehrmann, H. F. J. Corr, N. Farley, S. Crowhurst & D. G. Vaughan
Corresponding author:
James Smith, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom, Email: jaas@bas.ac.uk, Tel: +44 1223 221229
Original paper published in Nature on November 23, 2016.
