The Antarctica component of postglacial rebound model ICE-6G_C (VM5a) based on GPS positioning, exposure age dating of ice thicknesses, and relative sea level histories

A new model of the deglaciation history of Antarctica over the past 25 kyr has been developed, which we refer to herein as ICE-6G_C (VM5a). This revision of its predecessor ICE-5G (VM2) has been constrained to fit all available geological and geodetic observations, consisting of: (1) the present day uplift rates at 42 sites estimated from GPS measurements, (2) ice thickness change at 62 locations estimated from exposure-age dating, (3) Holocene relative sea level histories from 12 locations estimated on the basis of radiocarbon dating and (4) age of the onset of marine sedimentation at nine locations along the Antarctic shelf also estimated on the basis of
¹⁴
C dating. Our new model fits the totality of these data well. An additional nine GPS-determined site velocities are also estimated for locations known to be influenced by modern ice loss from the Pine Island Bay and Northern Antarctic Peninsula regions. At the 42 locations not influenced by modern ice loss, the quality of the fit of postglacial rebound model ICE-6G_C (VM5A) is characterized by a weighted root mean square residual of 0.9 mm yr
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. The Southern Antarctic Peninsula is inferred to be rising at 2 mm yr
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, requiring there to be less Holocene ice loss there than in the prior model ICE-5G (VM2). The East Antarctica coast is rising at approximately 1 mm yr
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, requiring ice loss from this region to have been small since Last Glacial Maximum. The Ellsworth Mountains, at the base of the Antarctic Peninsula, are inferred to be rising at 5–8 mm yr
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, indicating large ice loss from this area during deglaciation that is poorly sampled by geological data. Horizontal deformation of the Antarctic Plate is minor with two exceptions. First, O'Higgins, at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, is moving southeast at a significant 2 mm yr
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relative to the Antarctic Plate. Secondly, the margins of the Ronne and Ross Ice Shelves are moving horizontally away from the shelf centres at an approximate rate of 0.8 mm yr
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, in viscous response to the early Holocene unloading of ice from the current locations of the ice shelf centers. ICE-6G_C (VM5A) fits the horizontal observations well (wrms residual speed of 0.7 mm yr
^–1
), there being no need to invoke any influence of lateral variation in mantle viscosity. ICE-6G_C (VM5A) differs in several respects from the recently published W12A model of Whitehouse etal. First, the upper-mantle viscosity in VM5a is 5×10
²⁰
 Pa s, half that in W12A. The VM5a profile, which is identical to that inferred on the basis of the Fennoscandian relaxation spectrum, North American relative sea level histories and Earth rotation constraints, when coupled with the revised ICE-6G_C deglaciation history, fits all of the available constraints. Secondly, the net contribution of Antarctica ice loss to global sea level rise is 13.6 m, 2/3 greater than the 8 m in W12A. Thirdly, ice loss occurs quickly from 12 to 5 ka, and the contribution to global sea level rise during Meltwater Pulse 1B (11.5 ka) is large (5 m), consistent with sedimentation constraints from cores from the Antarctica ice shelf. Fourthly, in ICE-6G_C there is no ice gain in the East Antarctica interior, as there is in W12A. Finally, the new model of Antarctic deglaciation reconciles the global constraint upon the global mass loss during deglaciation provided by the Barbados record of relative sea level history when coupled with the Northern Hemisphere counterpart of this new model.