Late Pleistocene evolution of Scott Glacier, southern Transantarctic Mountains: implications for the Antarctic contribution to deglacial sea level

Glacial deposits preserved adjacent to Scott Glacier, southern Transantarctic Mountains, provide a record of past fluctuations in the thickness of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Geologic mapping of these deposits, in conjunction with emerging 10Be surface-exposure data, indicate that the most recent expansion of Scott Glacier occurred during the last glacial maximum in response to grounding of ice in the Ross Sea Embayment. At that time, the ice surface at the confluence of Scott Glacier and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet lay at ∼1100 m elevation. While this ice-surface reconstruction is in accord with other geologic estimates from throughout the Ross Sea Embayment, it contrasts with most computer-based simulations, which tend to overestimate former ice thickness in the southern Ross Sea. Together with recently modelled estimates of Antarctica's contribution to sea level, this finding calls into question an Antarctic source for meltwater pulse 1A.

► The last expansion of Scott Glacier occurred during the LGM in response to thickening of the WAIS. ► LGM ice-surface elevation in the southern Ross Sea was ∼1100 m. ► Geologic and modelled data show Antarctica is unlikely to have been the source of meltwater pulse 1A.