Not logged in
PANGAEA.
Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science

Steig, Eric J; Ding, Quinghua; White, James W C; Küttel, Meinrad; Rupper, Summer B; Neumann, T A; Neff, Peter D; Gallant, Ailie J E; Mayewski, Paul Andrew; Taylor, Kendrick C; Hoffmann, Georg; Dixon, Daniel A; Schoenemann, Spruce W; Markle, Bradley R; Fudge, Tyler J; Schneider, David P; Schauer, Andrew J; Teel, Rebecca P; Vaughn, Bruce H; Burgener, Landon; Williams, Jessica; Korotkikh, Elena; Gkinis, Vasileios (2018): Water stable isotope record of ice core WAIS divide [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.886046, Supplement to: Steig, Eric J; Ding, Quinghua; White, James W C; Küttel, Meinrad; Rupper, Summer B; Neumann, T A; Neff, Peter D; Gallant, Ailie J E; Mayewski, Paul Andrew; Taylor, Kendrick C; Hoffmann, Georg; Dixon, Daniel A; Schoenemann, Spruce W; Markle, Bradley R; Fudge, Tyler J; Schneider, David P; Schauer, Andrew J; Teel, Rebecca P; Vaughn, Bruce H; Burgener, Landon; Williams, Jessica; Korotkikh, Elena (2013): Recent climate and ice-sheet changes in West Antarctica compared with the past 2,000 years. Nature Geoscience, 6(5), 372-375, https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1778

Always quote citation above when using data! You can download the citation in several formats below.

RIS CitationBibTeX CitationShow MapGoogle Earth

Abstract:
Changes in atmospheric circulation over the past five decades have enhanced the wind-driven inflow of warm ocean water onto the Antarctic continental shelf, where it melts ice shelves from below. Atmospheric circulation changes have also caused rapid warming over the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and contributed to declining sea-ice cover in the adjacent Amundsen-Bellingshausen seas. It is unknown whether these changes are part of a longer-term trend. Here, we use water-isotope (d18O) data from an array of ice-core records to place recent West Antarctic climate changes in the context of the past two millennia. We find that the d18O of West Antarctic precipitation has increased significantly in the past 50 years, in parallel with the trend in temperature, and was probably more elevated during the 1990s than at any other time during the past 200 years. However, d18O anomalies comparable to those of recent decades occur about 1% of the time over the past 2,000 years. General circulation model simulations suggest that recent trends in d18O and climate in West Antarctica cannot be distinguished from decadal variability that originates in the tropics. We conclude that the uncertain trajectory of tropical climate variability represents a significant source of uncertainty in projections of West Antarctic climate and ice-sheet change.
Coverage:
Latitude: -79.468000 * Longitude: 12.086000
Minimum DEPTH, ice/snow: 120.00 m * Maximum DEPTH, ice/snow: 150.00 m
Event(s):
WAIS_divide * Latitude: -79.468000 * Longitude: 12.086000 * Elevation: 1759.0 m * Location: Antarctica, west * Method/Device: Ice drill (ICEDRILL)
Comment:
Stable Water Isotope Data from WAIS Divide Ice Core 2005. Interpolated on 5 cm until the depth of 269.65 (after this depth sampling becomes coarse).
Parameter(s):
#NameShort NameUnitPrincipal InvestigatorMethod/DeviceComment
1DEPTH, ice/snowDepth ice/snowmSteig, Eric JGeocode
2δ18O, waterδ18O H2O‰ SMOWSteig, Eric J
Size:
601 data points

Download Data

Download dataset as tab-delimited text — use the following character encoding:

View dataset as HTML