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Science 3 July 1998:
Vol. 281. no. 5373, pp. 82 - 85
DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5373.82
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Reports

Pleistocene Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Reed P. Scherer, * Ala Aldahan, Slawek Tulaczyk, Göran Possnert, Hermann Engelhardt, Barclay Kamb

Some glacial sediment samples recovered from beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet at ice stream B contain Quaternary diatoms and up to 108 atoms of beryllium-10 per gram. Other samples contain no Quaternary diatoms and only background levels of beryllium-10 (less than 106 atoms per gram). The occurrence of young diatoms and high concentrations of beryllium-10 beneath grounded ice indicates that the Ross Embayment was an open marine environment after a late Pleistocene collapse of the marine ice sheet.

R. P. Scherer and A. Aldahan, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, S-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. S. Tulaczyk, H. Engelhardt, B. Kamb, Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Mail Code 170-25, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. G. Possnert, Tandem Laboratory, Ångström Laboratory, Box , Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: reed.scherer{at}natgeog.uu.se

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