Scandinavian, Siberian, and Arctic Ocean Glaciation: Effect of Holocene Atmospheric CO2 Variations
D. R. Lindstrom 1 and
D. R. MacAyeal 2
1 Department of Geological Sciences (M/C 186), College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Box 4348, Chicago, IL 60680
2 Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637
A computer model of coupled ice sheet-ice shelf behavior was used to evaluate whether observed changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration could have caused the advance and retreat of Pleistocene ice sheets in the Eurasian Arctic. For CO2 concentrations below a threshold of approximately 250 parts per million, an extensive marine-based ice sheet covering Scandinavia, the Barents, Kara, and East Siberian seas, and parts of the Arctic Ocean developed in the model simulations. In the simulations, climatic warming associated with the Holocene rise of atmospheric CO2 was sufficient to collapse this widespread glaciation and restore present-day ice conditions.
