Advance of East Antarctic outlet glaciers during the Hypsithermal: implications for the volume state of the Antarctic ice sheet under global warming

We present the first circum-East Antarctic chronology for the Holocene, based on 17 radiocarbon dates generated by the accelerator method. Marine sediments from around East Antarctica contain a consistent, high-resolution record of terrigenous (ice-proximal) and biogenic (open-marine) sedimentation during Holocene time. This record demonstrates that biogenic sedimentation beneath the open-marine environment on the continental shelf has been restricted to approximately the past 4 ka, whereas a period of terrigenous sedimentation related to grounding line advance of ice tongues and ice shelves took place between 7 and 4 ka. An earlier period of open-marine (biogenic sedimentation) conditions following the late Pleistocene glacial maximum is recognized from the Prydz Bay (Ocean Drilling Program) record between 10.7 and 7.3 ka. The response of outlet systems along the periphery of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the mid-Holocene was expansion. Models that predict a positive mass balance (growth) of the Antarctic ice sheet under global warming are supported by the mid-Holocene data presented herein. -from Authors