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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

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Published on: March 31, 2023
West Antarctic Ice Sheet advance since the early Pliocene
Mengwei Zhang1,2, Julia S Wellner3, Karsten Gohl4
1Key Laboratory of Polar Geology and Marine Mineral Resources (China University of Geosciences, Beijing), Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
None:
Current understanding of past ice dynamics in the Amundsen Sea-the most vulnerable part of the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS)-remains incomplete, hampering future predictions. Here, sediments from International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1532 on the continental rise reveal that ice-sheet dynamics strongly influenced detrital magnetic minerals supply. Minimal magnetite concentration during ~4.1-3.8 Ma reflects the smallest WAIS extent in the Amundsen Sea sector since ~4.33 Ma. Since ~4.1 Ma, WAIS expansion was closely linked to long-term global cooling. After ~3.2 Ma, elevated fine-grained magnetite indicates a sustained increase in sediment contribution from the Thwaites Glacier catchment. The abrupt ice-sheet expansion at ~3.2 Ma may reflect the crossing of a climatic threshold that triggered qualitative transformations in ice-sheet development. Cessation of major WAIS growth after ~0.9 Ma aligns with stabilized long-term CO2 levels and ocean temperatures. Collectively, these results underscore the high sensitivity of the Amundsen Sea sector to global climate forcing.
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