Age-Depth Stratigraphy of Pine Island Glacier Inferred from Airborne
Radars and Ice-Core Chronology
Abstract
Understanding the contribution of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) to
past and future sea level has emerged as a scientific priority over the
last three decades. In recent years, observed thinning and ice-flow
acceleration of the marine-based Pine Island Glacier has demonstrated
that dynamic changes are central to the long-term stability of the WAIS.
However, significantly less is known about the evolution of the
catchment during the Holocene. Internal Reflecting Horizons (IRHs)
provide a cumulative record of accumulation, basal melt and ice dynamics
that, if dated, can be used to inform ice flow models to project spatial
and temporal mass changes. Here, we use airborne radars to trace four
consistent IRHs spanning the Holocene across the Pine Island Glacier
catchment. We use the WAIS Divide ice-core chronology to assign discrete
ages to three IRHs: 4.72 ± 0.08, 6.94 ± 0.11, and 16.50 ± 0.62 ka. We
use a 1D model, constrained by observational and modelled accumulation
rates, to produce an independent validation of our ice-core-derived ages
and provide an age estimate for our shallowest IRH (2.31-2.92 ka). We
find that significantly older ice is present below our deepest
reflector, but the absence of continuous radar-observed reflectors at
depth currently limits our understanding of pre-Holocene ice dynamical
history. The clear correspondence between our IRH package and the one
previously identified over Institute Ice Stream, altogether representing
~20% of the WAIS, suggests that a unique set of
stratigraphic markers spanning the Holocene exist widely across West
Antarctica.