The rapid warming observed in the western Antarctic Peninsula gives rise to a fast disintegration of ice shelves and thinning and retreat of marine-terminating continental glaciers, which is likely to raise global sea levels in the near future. In order to understand the contemporary changes in context and to provide constraints for hindcasting models, it is important to understand the Late Quaternary history of the region. Here, we build on previous work on the deglacial history of the western Antarctic Peninsula and we present four new cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages from Horseshoe Island in Marguerite Bay, which has been suggested as a former location of very fast ice stream retreat. Four samples collected from erratic pink granite boulders at an altitude of ~80 m above sea level yielded ages that range between 12.9 ± 1.1 ka and 9.4 ± 0.8 ka. As in other studies on Antarctic erratics, we have chosen to report the youngest erratic age (9.4 ± 0.8 ka) as the true age of deglaciation, which confirms a rapid thinning of the Marguerite Trough Ice Stream at the onset of Holocene. This result is consistent with other cosmogenic age data and other proxies (marine and lacustrine 14C and optically stimulated luminescence) reported from nearby areas.

The dust cycle plays an important role in the long-term evolution of the climate and environment. In this paper, an improved climate model including aerosol processes was used to carry out a set of sensitivity experiments and comparative analyses of the effects of high-latitude ice-sheet extent and abnormal dust erosion, as well as Earth’s orbital parameters and atmospheric greenhouse gas content, on dust activities during the last glacial maximum. The comparative analysis found that incorporating the abnormal surface erosion factor alone could increase dust emissions by 2.77-fold and 3.77-fold of the present-day global and Asian dust emissions, respectively. The high-latitude ice-sheet factor caused global dust emissions to increase by 1.25-fold that of the present day. Sensitivity experiments showed that increased surface erosion in Asia during the last glacial maximum made the greatest contribution to the increased dust emissions in Asia, followed by the high-latitude ice-sheet factor, while the contributions of the greenhouse gas content and orbital parameters were relatively weak. Strong dust emissions during the glacial period were therefore not only dependent on the development of the high-latitude ice sheets but were strongly associated with the underlying surface characteristics of local dust source regions.

Lithostratigraphical studies coupled with the development of new dating methods has led to significant progress in understanding the Late Pleistocene terrestrial record in Scotland. Systematic analysis and re-evaluation of key localities have provided new insights into the complexity of the event stratigraphy in some regions and the timing of Late Pleistocene environmental changes, but few additional critical sites have been described in the past 25 years. The terrestrial stratigraphic record remains important for understanding the timing, sequence and patterns of glaciation and deglaciation during the last glacial/interglacial cycle. Former interpretations of ice-free areas in peripheral areas during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are inconsistent with current stratigraphic and dating evidence. Significant challenges remain to determine events and patterns of glaciation during the Early and Middle Devensian, particularly in the context of offshore evidence and ice sheet modelling that indicate significant build-up of ice throughout much of the period. The terrestrial evidence broadly supports recent reconstructions of a highly dynamic and climate-sensitive British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS), which apparently reached its greatest thickness in Scotland between 30 and 27ka, before the global LGM. A thick (relative to topography) integrated ice sheet reaching the shelf edge with a simple ice-divide structure was replaced after the LGM by a much thinner one comprising multiple dispersion centres and a more complex flow structure.

Postglacial emergence curves are used to infer mantle rheology, delimit ice extent, and test models of the solid Earth response to changing ice and water loads. Such curves are rarely produced by direct dating of land emergence; rather, most rely on the presence of radiocarbon-datable organic material and inferences made between the age of sedimentary deposits and landforms indicative of former sea level. Here, we demonstrate a new approach, 10Be dating, to determine rates of postglacial land emergence in two different settings. In southern Greenland (Narsarsuaq/Igaliku), we date directly the exposure, as relative sea level fell, of gravel beaches and rocky outcrops allowing determination of rapid, post–Younger Dryas emergence. In western Greenland (Kangerlussuaq), we constrain Holocene isostatic response by dating the sequential stripping of terrace sediment driven by land-surface uplift, relative sea-level fall, and resulting fluvial incision. The technique we employ provides high temporal and elevation resolution important for quantifying rapid emergence immediately after deglaciation and less rapid uplift during the middle Holocene. 10Be-constrained emergence curves can improve knowledge of relative sea-level change by dating land emergence along rocky coasts, at elevations and locations where radiocarbon-datable sediments are not present, and without the lag time needed for organic material to accumulate.

Measurements of snow accumulation are critical for reliable prediction of future ice mass loss and hence projections of sea level change. However, there are currently very few published in situ measurements of snow accumulation in the Pine Island–Thwaites glacier catchment of the Amundsen Sea Embayment, and none from low elevation sites west of 100.77° longitude. Here measurements of snow accumulation over an 11 month period in 2016 are reported for six sites in the Pine Island–Thwaites glacier catchment. The average accumulation rates of 0.10±0.01 to 1.26±0.22 m w.e. yr-1 are comparable with those derived from airborne radar for the period 1985–2009, suggesting very high rates of snowfall, particularly in the vicinity of the grounding line.

A pilot study was designed to evaluate the potential of zircon geochronology as a provenance indicator of till from the Lake Michigan, Saginaw, and Huron-Erie Lobes of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Based on existing ice flow-path models, we hypothesized that till from each lobe would have different zircon age population distributions because the lobes originated from regions of the Canadian Shield with different bedrock ages. After correcting for zircon fertility, the majority of grains in all till samples are 1600–950 Ma, with ~30 % of ages >2500 Ma. This similarity means that till from the three lobes cannot be clearly differentiated based on their zircon populations. The dominant ages found and the homogeneity of distributions in the till indicates a non-Shield source and, instead, reflect an origin from some combination of underlying till and sedimentary bedrock in the Great Lakes region. Even though the datasets are small, the tills have similarities to zircon distributions in Michigan Basin rocks. This implies that a substantial fraction of zircon in till was not transported long distances from the Canadian Shield. Although zircon ages are not distinct between tills, the method provides a novel application to understand Laurentide Ice Sheet glacial erosion and transport.

The time at which the Laurentide Ice Sheet reached its maximum extent and subsequently retreated from its terminal moraine in New Jersey has been constrained by bracketing radiocarbon ages on preglacial and postglacial sediments. Here, we present measurements of in situ produced 10Be and 26Al in 16 quartz-bearing samples collected from bedrock outcrops and glacial erratics just north of the terminal moraine in north-central New Jersey; as such, our ages represent a minimum limit on the timing of ice recession from the moraine. The data set includes field and laboratory replicates, as well as replication of the entire data set five years after initial measurement. We find that recession of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the terminal moraine in New Jersey began before 25.2±2.1 ka (10Be, n=16, average, 1 standard deviation). This cosmogenic nuclide exposure age is consistent with existing limiting radiocarbon ages in the study area and cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages from the terminal moraine on Martha’s Vineyard ~300 km to the northeast. The age we propose for Laurentide Ice Sheet retreat from the New Jersey terminal position is broadly consistent with regional and global climate records of the last glacial maximum termination and records of fluvial incision.

The Holocene sea-level high stand or “marine limit” in Wilkes Land, East Antarctica, reached ∼30 m above present sea level at a few dispersed sites. The most detailed marine limit data have been recorded for the Windmill Islands and Budd Coast at the margin of the Law Dome ice cap, a dome of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS). Relative sea-level lowering of 30 m and the associated emergence of the Windmill Islands have occurred since 6900 14C (corr.) yr B.P. Numerical modeling of the Earth's rheology is used to determine the glacio-isostatic component of the observed relative sea-level lowering. Glaciological evidence suggests that most of EAIS thickening occurred around its margin, with expansion onto the continental shelf. Consequently, a regional ice history for the last glacial maximum (LGM) was applied in the glacio-isostatic modeling to test whether the observed relative sea-level lowering was primarily produced by regional ice-sheet changes. The results of the modeling indicate that the postglacial (13,000 to 8000 14C yr B.P) removal of an ice load of between 770 and 1000 m from around the margin of the Law Dome and adjacent EAIS have produced the observed relative sea-level lowering. Such an additional ice load would have been associated with a 40- to 65-km expansion of the Law Dome to near the continental shelf break, together with a few hundred meters of ice thickening on the adjoining coastal slope of the EAIS up to 2000 m elevation. Whereas the observed changes in relative sea level are shown to be strongly influenced by regional ice sheet changes, the glacio-isostatic response at the Windmill Islands results from a combination of regional and to a lesser extent, Antarctic-wide effects. The correspondence between the Holocene relative sea-level lowering interpreted at the margin of the Law Dome and the lowering interpreted along the remainder of the Wilkes Land and Oates Land coasts (105°–160° E) suggests that a similar ice load of up to 1000 m existed along the EAIS margin between Wilkes Land and Oates Land.

Recent changes along the margins of the Antarctic Peninsula, such as the collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, have highlighted the effects of climatic warming on the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS). However, such changes must be viewed in a long-term (millennial-scale) context if we are to understand their significance for future stability of the Antarctic ice sheets. To address this, we present nine new cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages from sites on NW Alexander Island and Rothschild Island (adjacent to the Wilkins Ice Shelf) that provide constraints on the timing of thinning of the Alexander Island ice cap since the last glacial maximum. All but one of the 10Be ages are in the range 10.2–21.7 ka, showing a general trend of progressive ice-sheet thinning since at least 22 ka until 10 ka. The data also provide a minimum estimate (490 m) for ice-cap thickness on NW Alexander Island at the last glacial maximum. Cosmogenic 3He ages from a rare occurrence of mantle xenoliths on Rothschild Island yield variable ages up to 46 ka, probably reflecting exhumation by periglacial processes.

Improved multiparameter records from the northern Barents Sea margin show two prominent freshwater pulses into the Arctic Ocean during MIS 5 that significantly disturbed the regional oceanic regime and probably affected global climate. Both pulses are associated with major iceberg-rafted debris (IRD) events, revealing intensive iceberg/sea ice melting. The older meltwater pulse occurred near the MIS 5/6 boundary (∼131,000 yr ago); its ∼2000 year duration and high IRD input accompanied by high illite content suggest a collapse of large-scale Saalian Glaciation in the Arctic Ocean. Movement of this meltwater with the Transpolar Drift current into the Fram Strait probably promoted freshening of Nordic Seas surface water, which may have increased sea-ice formation and significantly reduced deep-water formation. A second pulse of freshwater occurred within MIS 5a (∼77,000 yr ago); its high smectite content and relatively short duration is possibly consistent with sudden discharge of Early Weichselian ice-dammed lakes in northern Siberia as suggested by terrestrial glacial geologic data. The influence of this MIS 5a meltwater pulse has been observed at a number of sites along the Transpolar Drift, through Fram Strait, and into the Nordic Seas; it may well have been a trigger for the North Atlantic cooling event C20.

The presence of glacial sediments across the Rauer Group indicates that the East Antarctic ice sheet formerly covered the entire archipelago and has since retreated at least 15 km from its maximum extent. The degree of weathering of these glacial sediments suggests that ice retreat from this maximum position occurred sometime during the latter half of the last glacial cycle. Following this phase of retreat, the ice sheet margin has not expanded more than ∼ 1 km seaward of its present position. This pattern of ice sheet change matches that recorded in Vestfold Hills, providing further evidence that the diminutive Marine Isotope Stage 2 ice sheet advance in the nearby Larsemann Hills may have been influenced by local factors rather than a regional ice-sheet response to climate and sea-level change.

Glacier surface mass-balance measurements on Greenland started more than a century ago, but no compilation exists of the observations from the ablation area of the ice sheet and local glaciers. Such data could be used in the evaluation of modelled surface mass balance, or to document changes in glacier melt independently from model output. Here, we present a comprehensive database of Greenland glacier surface mass-balance observations from the ablation area of the ice sheet and local glaciers. The database spans the 123 a from 1892 to 2015, contains a total of ~3000 measurements from 46 sites, and is openly accessible through the PROMICE web portal (http://www.promice.dk). For each measurement we provide X, Y and Z coordinates, starting and ending dates as well as quality flags. We give sources for each entry and for all metadata. Two thirds of the data were collected from grey literature and unpublished archive documents. Roughly 60% of the measurements were performed by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS, previously GGU). The data cover all regions of Greenland except for the southernmost part of the east coast, but also emphasize the importance of long-term time series of which there are only two exceeding 20 a. We use the data to analyse uncertainties in point measurements of surface mass balance, as well as to estimate surface mass-balance profiles for most regions of Greenland.

Rapidly-flowing ice streams are an important mechanism through which ice sheets lose mass, and much work has been focussed on elucidating the processes that increase or decrease their velocity. Recent work using standard inverse methods has inferred previously-unrecognised regular patterns of high basal shear stress (‘sticky spots’ >200 kPa) beneath a number of ice streams in Antarctica and Greenland, termed ‘traction ribs’. They appear at a scale intermediate between smaller ribbed moraines and much larger mega-ribs observed on palaeo-ice sheet beds, but it is unclear whether they have a topographic expression at the bed. Here, we report observations of rib-like bedforms from DEMs along palaeo-ice stream beds in western Canada that resemble both the pattern and dimensions of traction ribs. Their identification suggests that traction ribs may have a topographic expression that lies between, and partly overlaps with, ribbed moraines and much larger mega-ribs. These intermediate-sized bedforms support the notion of a ribbed bedform continuum. Their formation remains conjectural, but our observations from palaeo-ice streams, coupled with those from modern ice masses, suggest they are related to wave-like instabilities occurring in the coupled flow of ice and till and modulated by subglacial meltwater drainage. Their form and pattern may also involve glaciotectonism of subglacial sediments.

The ice-proximal diamict sediment deposited on the foreset of a grounding zone wedge in Glomar Challenger Basin on the eastern Ross Sea continental shelf yielded a low abundance assemblage of foraminifera at two piston core sites. We found 302 small well-preserved specimens representing 18 species of benthic foraminifera from 825 ml of sediment. Only three poorly preserved specimens of the planktonic foraminifera Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (sinistral) were found. Our combined analyses of preservation state, assemblage composition and stable isotopes suggest that the benthic foraminifera may be in situ. This possibility is of interest to palaeoclimatologists who use ice-proximal sediments on the Antarctic continental shelves to radiocarbon date the post-glacial retreat history.

Cores acquired from the Ross Sea continental shelf and continental slope during the XXX Italian Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA) were analysed and yielded interesting micropalaeontological, biostratigraphic diatom results and palaeoceanographic implications. These multi-proxy analyses enabled us to reconstruct the glacial/deglacial history of this sector of the Ross embayment over the last 40 000 years, advancing our understanding of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) environmental and sedimentological processes linked to the Ross Sea ice sheet/ice shelf fluctuations in a basin and continental-slope environment, and allowed us to measure some of the palaeoceanographic dynamics. The central sector of the Ross Sea and part of its coast (south of the Drygalski Ice Tongue) enjoyed open marine conditions in the pre-LGM era (27 500–24 000 years bp). The retreat of the ice sheet could have been influenced by a southward shift of a branch of the Ross gyre, which triggered early deglaciation at c. 18 600 cal bp with a significant Modified Circumpolar Deep Water inflow over the continental slope at c. 14 380 cal BP. We assume that a lack of depositional material in each core, although at different times, represents a hiatus. Other than problems in core collection, this could be due to the onset of modern oceanographic conditions, with strong gravity currents and strong High Salinity Shelf Water exportation. Moreover, we presume that improvements in biostratigraphy, study of reworked diatom taxa, and lithological and geochemical analyses will provide important constraints for the reconstruction of the LGM grounding line, ice-flow lines and ice-flow paths and an interesting tool for reconstructing palaeo-sub-bottom currents in this sector of the Ross embayment.

Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) commenced on the occasion of International Geophysical Year in 1957–1958. Syowa Station, the primary station for JARE operations, is located along the northeastern coastal region of Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica (69° 00′S, 39° 35′E), and was opened on 29 January 1957. Since then, JARE have been carrying out research in various fields of earth and planetary sciences and life science. Astronomical science, however, has not been popular in Antarctica. In 1995, JARE established a new inland station, Dome Fuji Station (77° 19′S, 39° 42′E), which, at 3,810 m a.s.l., is located on one of major domes of the Antarctic ice sheet, some 1,000 km south of Syowa. The climatic conditions at Dome Fuji are harsh, with an annual average air temperature of −54°C, and a recorded minimum of −79°C. In 2007, JARE completed scientific drilling to obtain ice core samples of the Antarctic ice sheet reaching 3,050 m in depth. These ice cores record environmental conditions of the earth extending back some 720,000 B.P. In recent years, it is widely known that the high-altitude environment of inland Antarctica is suitable for astronomical observations and the Japanese astronomy community identified Dome Fuji Station as a potential candidate for a future astronomical observatory. In this article, the history of Japanese Antarctic activities are described in terms of access to the inland plateau of the Antarctic continent. The general scheme and future plans of science objectives and logistics of JARE will also be introduced.

Geological evidence shows that the ice sheet and climate in Antarctica has changed considerably since the onset of glaciation around 34 million years ago. By analysing this evidence, important information concerning processes responsible for ice sheet growth and decay can be determined, which is vital for appreciating future changes in Antarctica. Geological records are diverse and their analyses require a variety of techniques. They are, however, essential for the establishment of hypotheses regarding past Antarctic changes. Numerical models of ice and climate are useful for testing such hypotheses, and in recent years there have been several advances in our knowledge relating to ice sheet history gained from these tests. This paper documents five case studies, employing a full range of techniques, to exemplify recent insights into Antarctic climate evolution from modelling ice sheet inception in the earliest Oligocene to quantifying Neogene ice sheet fluctuations and process-led investigations of recent (last glacial) changes.

Cape Purvis is a conspicuous promontory on southern Dundee Island. It forms a prominent mesa that contrasts with the smooth, shield-like (snow-covered) topography of the remainder of the island. The promontory is composed of fresh alkaline basaltic (hawaiite) volcanic rocks compositionally similar to younger lavas on Paulet Island 5 km to the east. The outcrop is one of the youngest and northernmost satellite centres of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group. 40Ar/39Ar isotopic dating indicates that the Cape Purvis volcano is 132 ± 19 ka in age. The examined sequence probably formed as a lava-fed delta during a subglacial eruption late in the glacial period corresponding to Isotope Stage 6, when the ice sheet surface elevation was 300–400 m higher than at present. A remarkable unidirectional age progression is now evident, from volcanic centres in Prince Gustav Channel (c. 2.0–1.6 Ma), through Tabarin Peninsula (1.69–c. 1 Ma) to Cape Purvis and Paulet islands (132–few ka). The age variations are tentatively ascribed to construction of progressively younger volcanic centres at the leading edge of an easterly-opening deep fault system, although the origins of the postulated fault system are unclear.

The Cenozoic glacial history of East Antarctica is recorded in part by the stratigraphy of the Prydz Bay—Lambert Graben region. The glacigene strata and associated erosion surfaces record at least 10 intervals of glacial advance (with accompanying erosion and sediment compaction), and more than 17 intervals of glacial retreat (enabling open marine deposition in Prydz Bay and the Lambert Graben). The number of glacial advances and retreats is considerably less than would be expected from Milankovitch frequencies due to the incomplete stratigraphic record. Large advances of the Lambert Glacier caused progradation of the continental shelf edge. At times of extreme glacial retreat, marine conditions reached > 450 km inland from the modern ice shelf edge. This review presents a partial reconstruction of Cenozoic glacial extent within Prydz Bay and the Lambert Graben that can be compared to eustatic sea-level records from the southern Australian continental margin.