Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago

Brice R. Rea; Andrew M. W. Newton; Rachel M. Lamb; Rachel Harding; Grant R. Bigg; Phil Rose; Matteo Spagnolo; Mads Huuse; John M. L. Cater; Stuart Archer; Francis Buckley; Maral Halliyeva; Jane Huuse; David G. Cornwell; Simon H. Brocklehurst; John A. Howell

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aar8327

Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago

Brice R. Rea, Andrew M. W. Newton, Rachel M. Lamb, Rachel Harding, Grant R. Bigg, Phil Rose, Matteo Spagnolo, Mads Huuse, John M. L. Cater, Stuart Archer, Francis Buckley, Maral Halliyeva, Jane Huuse, David G. Cornwell, Simon H. Brocklehurst, John A. Howell

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Abstract

Geometries of Early Pleistocene (2.58–0.78 million years ago) ice sheets in NW Europe are poorly constrained, but are required to improve our understanding of past ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere coupling. Ice sheets are believed to have changed in their response to orbital forcing, becoming, from about 1.2 million years ago, volumetrically larger, and longer-lived. Here, we present a multi-proxy dataset for the North Sea, extending to over a kilometre below the present-day seafloor, which clearly demonstrates spatially extensive glaciation of the basin from the earliest Pleistocene. Ice sheets repeatedly entered the North Sea, south of 60°N, in water depths of up to ~250 m from 2.53 Ma and subsequently grounded in the centre of the basin, in deeper water, from 1.87 Ma. Despite lower global ice volumes, these ice sheets were near-comparable in spatial extent to those of the Middle and Late Pleistocene but possibly thinner and moving over slippery (low basal resistance) beds.

Original language	English
Article number	eaar8327
Number of pages	12
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	4
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar8327
Publication status	Published - 13 Jun 2018

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Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from
Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 1.44 MBLicence: CC BY

John Howell
- School of Geosciences, Geology and Geophysics - Chair in Virtual Geosciences
Person: Academic
Brice Rea
- School of Geosciences, Geography & Environment - Personal Chair
- Cryosphere and Climate Change Research Group
Person: Academic
Matteo Spagnolo
- School of Geosciences, Geography & Environment - Personal Chair
- Cryosphere and Climate Change Research Group
Person: Academic

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Rea, B. R., Newton, A. M. W., Lamb, R. M., Harding, R., Bigg, G. R., Rose, P., Spagnolo, M., Huuse, M., Cater, J. M. L., Archer, S., Buckley, F., Halliyeva, M., Huuse, J., Cornwell, D. G., Brocklehurst, S. H., & Howell, J. A. (2018). Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago. Science Advances, 4(6), [eaar8327]. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar8327

@article{1d81569502c2476a927eb38d9a8c9ce4,

title = "Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago",

abstract = "Geometries of Early Pleistocene (2.58–0.78 million years ago) ice sheets in NW Europe are poorly constrained, but are required to improve our understanding of past ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere coupling. Ice sheets are believed to have changed in their response to orbital forcing, becoming, from about 1.2 million years ago, volumetrically larger, and longer-lived. Here, we present a multi-proxy dataset for the North Sea, extending to over a kilometre below the present-day seafloor, which clearly demonstrates spatially extensive glaciation of the basin from the earliest Pleistocene. Ice sheets repeatedly entered the North Sea, south of 60°N, in water depths of up to ~250 m from 2.53 Ma and subsequently grounded in the centre of the basin, in deeper water, from 1.87 Ma. Despite lower global ice volumes, these ice sheets were near-comparable in spatial extent to those of the Middle and Late Pleistocene but possibly thinner and moving over slippery (low basal resistance) beds. ",

author = "Rea, {Brice R.} and Newton, {Andrew M. W.} and Lamb, {Rachel M.} and Rachel Harding and Bigg, {Grant R.} and Phil Rose and Matteo Spagnolo and Mads Huuse and Cater, {John M. L.} and Stuart Archer and Francis Buckley and Maral Halliyeva and Jane Huuse and Cornwell, {David G.} and Brocklehurst, {Simon H.} and Howell, {John A.}",

note = "We thank the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (grant numbers: A87604X, NE/K500859/1 and NE/J500057/1), as well as Cairn Energy, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), and the British Geological Survey University Funding Initiative (BUFI) for jointly funding (with NERC) the individual PhDs of AMWN, RH and RML, respectively. MH was supported by funding from the University of Aberdeen and Senergy GB Ltd. Apache kindly provided access to the Aviat data sets. We would like to thank PGS for permission to use and publish images from their MegaSurvey 3D seismic data. TGS are thanked for the use of Facies Map Browser to obtain borehole data. Schlumberger, Eliis and ESRI are thanked for software licenses of Petrel, Paleoscan and ArcGIS, respectively, to the University of Manchester. The authors declare that they have no competing interests with regards to this research. BRR led the overall project and wrote the first draft of the manuscript with AMWN. PR, BRR, MS and SA conceived the work on Aviat. MHu conceived the regional seismic mapping, which was developed further by AMWN and RH. All co-authors have contributed to the manuscript at various stages. Mapping from 3D seismic was led by AMWN (iceberg scours, geochronology and palaeobathymetry), RML (MSGL and chronostratigraphy) RH (chrono-stratigraphy), PR (Aviat), MHa (Aviat) and FB provided input on Early Pleistocene glacial horizons. GRB undertook the climate modelling. JMLC led the analyses of the Aviat cores and the environmental interpretations of Aviat were led by BRR, MS and SA. JHu provided insight on the seismic stratigraphy along the Norwegian Channel. DGC provided input on seismic imaging and regional crustal structure. All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data available from authors upon request. ",

year = "2018",

month = jun,

day = "13",

doi = "10.1126/sciadv.aar8327",

language = "English",

volume = "4",

journal = "Science Advances",

issn = "2375-2548",

publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",

number = "6",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago

AU - Rea, Brice R.

AU - Newton, Andrew M. W.

AU - Lamb, Rachel M.

AU - Harding, Rachel

AU - Bigg, Grant R.

AU - Rose, Phil

AU - Spagnolo, Matteo

AU - Huuse, Mads

AU - Cater, John M. L.

AU - Archer, Stuart

AU - Buckley, Francis

AU - Halliyeva, Maral

AU - Huuse, Jane

AU - Cornwell, David G.

AU - Brocklehurst, Simon H.

AU - Howell, John A.

N1 - We thank the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (grant numbers: A87604X, NE/K500859/1 and NE/J500057/1), as well as Cairn Energy, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), and the British Geological Survey University Funding Initiative (BUFI) for jointly funding (with NERC) the individual PhDs of AMWN, RH and RML, respectively. MH was supported by funding from the University of Aberdeen and Senergy GB Ltd. Apache kindly provided access to the Aviat data sets. We would like to thank PGS for permission to use and publish images from their MegaSurvey 3D seismic data. TGS are thanked for the use of Facies Map Browser to obtain borehole data. Schlumberger, Eliis and ESRI are thanked for software licenses of Petrel, Paleoscan and ArcGIS, respectively, to the University of Manchester. The authors declare that they have no competing interests with regards to this research. BRR led the overall project and wrote the first draft of the manuscript with AMWN. PR, BRR, MS and SA conceived the work on Aviat. MHu conceived the regional seismic mapping, which was developed further by AMWN and RH. All co-authors have contributed to the manuscript at various stages. Mapping from 3D seismic was led by AMWN (iceberg scours, geochronology and palaeobathymetry), RML (MSGL and chronostratigraphy) RH (chrono-stratigraphy), PR (Aviat), MHa (Aviat) and FB provided input on Early Pleistocene glacial horizons. GRB undertook the climate modelling. JMLC led the analyses of the Aviat cores and the environmental interpretations of Aviat were led by BRR, MS and SA. JHu provided insight on the seismic stratigraphy along the Norwegian Channel. DGC provided input on seismic imaging and regional crustal structure. All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data available from authors upon request.

PY - 2018/6/13

Y1 - 2018/6/13

N2 - Geometries of Early Pleistocene (2.58–0.78 million years ago) ice sheets in NW Europe are poorly constrained, but are required to improve our understanding of past ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere coupling. Ice sheets are believed to have changed in their response to orbital forcing, becoming, from about 1.2 million years ago, volumetrically larger, and longer-lived. Here, we present a multi-proxy dataset for the North Sea, extending to over a kilometre below the present-day seafloor, which clearly demonstrates spatially extensive glaciation of the basin from the earliest Pleistocene. Ice sheets repeatedly entered the North Sea, south of 60°N, in water depths of up to ~250 m from 2.53 Ma and subsequently grounded in the centre of the basin, in deeper water, from 1.87 Ma. Despite lower global ice volumes, these ice sheets were near-comparable in spatial extent to those of the Middle and Late Pleistocene but possibly thinner and moving over slippery (low basal resistance) beds.

AB - Geometries of Early Pleistocene (2.58–0.78 million years ago) ice sheets in NW Europe are poorly constrained, but are required to improve our understanding of past ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere coupling. Ice sheets are believed to have changed in their response to orbital forcing, becoming, from about 1.2 million years ago, volumetrically larger, and longer-lived. Here, we present a multi-proxy dataset for the North Sea, extending to over a kilometre below the present-day seafloor, which clearly demonstrates spatially extensive glaciation of the basin from the earliest Pleistocene. Ice sheets repeatedly entered the North Sea, south of 60°N, in water depths of up to ~250 m from 2.53 Ma and subsequently grounded in the centre of the basin, in deeper water, from 1.87 Ma. Despite lower global ice volumes, these ice sheets were near-comparable in spatial extent to those of the Middle and Late Pleistocene but possibly thinner and moving over slippery (low basal resistance) beds.

U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.aar8327

DO - 10.1126/sciadv.aar8327

M3 - Article

VL - 4

JO - Science Advances

JF - Science Advances

SN - 2375-2548

IS - 6

M1 - eaar8327

ER -

Extensive marine-terminating ice sheets in Europe from 2.5 million years ago

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