Inception, growth and decay of the British-Irish Ice Sheet

英国-爱尔兰冰盖的形成、增长和衰退

• 批准号: NE/W009986/1
• 负责人: Sara Benetti
• 金额: $ 14.8万
• 依托单位: University of Ulster
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FW009986%2F1
• 关键词: Inception; growth; decay; British; Irish

The potential for collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), the only modern marine-based ice sheet today, remains the largest source of uncertainty in projections of future sea-level rise. This uncertainty comes from an imperfect understanding of ice sheet processes and their internal variability in response to climate and ocean forcing. Improving such understanding for palaeo-ice sheets has important implications for modelling and forecasting of future changes in modern ice sheets. The British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS), that extended over the UK and Ireland during the Quaternary, was marine-terminating, drained by large ice streams, and was particularly sensitive to oceanographic and climatic changes due to its geographical position bordering the North Atlantic. This makes it an excellent analogue to gain further insight into the dynamics of modern marine-terminating ice sheets. However, surprisingly little is known about BIIS inception and older glaciations prior to the last glacial period. This project aims to fill this scientific gap by identifying specific drilling sites along the UK and Irish continental margin for the submission of a mission-specific IODP proposal on the reconstruction of the inception, and cycles of growth and decay of the BIIS during the Cenozoic. The target areas and research themes for the final IODP proposal have already been identified based on previous research, but the selection of specific drill sites for each area requires careful consideration and an assessment of the suitability and safety of each site. The extensive suite of geophysical and geological datasets already available on this margin will be analysed by the PDRA, under the guidance of the UK-based PI and co-Is, specifically for this purpose. The proposal includes a workshop in month 10 of the project to bring together a team of named collaborators from the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Norway and Australia, with research experience on the BIIS and glacial processes on this continental margin as well as experience with IODP processes and data, to develop the final IODP proposal and eventually deliver the first full reconstruction of the BIIS from its inception.

当今唯一的现代海洋冰盖的西南冰原（WAIS）崩溃的潜力仍然是未来海平面上升的预测不确定性的最大不确定性来源。这种不确定性来自对冰盖过程的不了解及其对气候和海洋强迫的内部变异性。提高对古冰纸的理解对建模和预测现代冰盖的未来变化具有重要意义。在第四纪期间，英国和爱尔兰延伸的英国冰盖（BII）是海洋终止的，被大型冰溪排干，由于其与北大西洋接壤的地理位置，对海洋学和气候变化特别敏感。这使得成为现代海洋末端冰盖动态的进一步洞悉的绝佳类似物。然而，关于BIIS INCEPTION和较旧的冰川之前的冰川之前，知之甚少。该项目旨在通过确定英国和爱尔兰大陆边缘的特定钻探地点来填补这一科学差距，以提交有关重建开始的特定于任务的IODP提案，以及在CENOKOIC期间的BIIS生长和衰减周期。最终IODP提案的目标领域和研究主题已经根据先前的研究确定，但是每个区域的特定钻机选择需要仔细考虑并评估每个站点的适用性和安全性。在英国的PI和Co-IS的指导下，PDRA将分析广泛的地球物理和地质数据集的广泛套件，特别是为此目的。该提案包括该项目第10个月的研讨会，召集了来自英国，爱尔兰，比利时，挪威和澳大利亚的一组合作者团队，并在此大陆保证金的BII和冰川流程方面进行了研究经验，以及与IODP的经验流程和数据，以开发最终的IODP提案，并最终从其成立中提供了BII的第一个完整重建。