Pre-LGM Northern Hemisphere paleo-ice sheet topography

Abstract

Abstract. We here reconstruct the paleotopgraphy of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the glacial maxima of marine isotope stages (MIS) 5b and 4. We employ two approaches, geologically based reconstruction and numerical modeling, in mutually supportive roles to arrive at probable ice sheet extents and topographies for each of these two time slices. For a physically based 3-D calculation based on geologically derived 2-D constraints, we use the University of Maine Ice Sheet Model (UMISM) to calculate ice-sheet thickness and topography. The approach and ice-sheet modeling strategy is designed to provide robust data sets of sufficient resolution for atmospheric circulation experiments for these previously elusive time periods. Two tunable parameters, a temperature scaling function applied to a spliced Vostok-GRIP record, and spatial adjustment of climatic pole position, were employed iteratively to achieve a good fit to geological constraints where such were available. The model credibly reproduces the first-order pattern of size and location of geologically indicated ice sheets during marine isotope stages (MIS) 5b (86.2 kyr model age) and 4 (64 kyr model age). From the interglacial state of two north-south obstacles to atmospheric circulation (Rocky Mountains and Greenland), by MIS 5b combined Quebec-Central Arctic and Scandinavian–Barents/Kara ice sheets had effectively increased the number of such highland obstacles to four. This number remained constant through MIS 4, but at the last glacial maximum (LGM) dropped to three, through the merging of the Cordilleran and the proto-Laurentide Ice Sheet to a single continent-wide North American ice sheet.