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• 1. [Article] Late Cenozoic Climate, Ice-sheet and Earth-surface Evolution Derived from Terrestrial and Marine Sedimentary Archives

  The goals of this dissertation are centered on understanding changes in Earth surface and climate systems through the use of geologic proxies as records of past changes in these systems. Specifically, ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Late Cenozoic Climate, Ice-sheet and Earth-surface Evolution Derived from Terrestrial and Marine Sedimentary Archives Author: Bill, Nicholas S. The goals of this dissertation are centered on understanding changes in Earth surface and climate systems through the use of geologic proxies as records of past changes in these systems. Specifically, this dissertation (1) establishes a new chronology for retreat of the Ross Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice during the last deglaciation, (2) investigates the changes in the global climate system during the mid- Pleistocene transition, and (3) constrains the timing of surface uplift in Alaska, and the control that topography has on regional climate and the hydrologic cycle over the tectonic timescale. This dissertation establishes the timing of the last deglaciation of the Ross Sea Sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), addressing the question of whether grounded ice in the Ross Embayment deglaciated entirely in the Holocene or earlier. ¹⁰Be surface exposure dating of granitic glacial erratic boulders indicates that the onset of sustained retreat from the local Last Glacial Maximum started at 18.6 ± 1.1 ka, and that sustained retreat occurred into the middle Holocene. We attribute most of this retreat to temperature and radiative forcing of the ablation zone in McMurdo Sound with only the final stages of retreat possibly influenced by Holocene grounding line retreat. The mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) represents a transition from predominantly 40-kyr climate cycles to predominantly 100-kyr cycles in the absence of any change in orbital forcing. Here I combine all existing records of SST (n=7) and δ¹³C (n=17) that span the entirety of the last 2 Ma and use principal component analysis to detect the shared global signal of these records across the MPT. I also develop stacks of ice volume, ocean basin-scale δ¹³C gradients and CO₂ reconstructions in an attempt to characterize the interaction between deep ocean circulation and climate change across the MPT. I find that the characteristic change in cyclicity of the MPT appears in SST, δ¹³C and ice-volume reconstructions. I interpret marine isotope stage (MIS) 23 (~900 ka) as a skipped interglacial that led to MIS 25- 21 as being the first 100-kyr period, potentially initiating the 100-kyr cycle during the rest of the Pleistocene. I also find that the largest global negative δ¹³C excursion in the Pleistocene occurred during the glacial periods MIS 24 and MIS 22. This excursion is likely related to a mean shift to a reduced glacial-period AMOC across the MPT that is observed in multiple AMOC strength reconstructions, and that I interpret as a key component of the MPT. The topography of southern Alaska has been shown to have likely experienced rapid exhumation during the early Pliocene stating ~5-6 Ma. Using δD measurements on OH- groups of clay minerals, I constrain the change in isotopic composition of paleo-meteoric water from the Miocene-Holocene in the interior of Alaska as a proxy for the surface uplift history of Alaskan topography via its control on the δD signal of surface water. My results suggest that there was rapid surface uplift of the several mountain ranges encompassing southern Alaska during the period from ~6.5-3 Ma. Title: Late Cenozoic Climate, Ice-sheet and Earth-surface Evolution Derived from Terrestrial and Marine Sedimentary Archives Author: Bill, Nicholas S. The goals of this dissertation are centered on understanding changes in Earth surface and climate systems through the use of geologic proxies as records of past changes in these systems. Specifically, this dissertation (1) establishes a new chronology for retreat of the Ross Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice during the last deglaciation, (2) investigates the changes in the global climate system during the mid- Pleistocene transition, and (3) constrains the timing of surface uplift in Alaska, and the control that topography has on regional climate and the hydrologic cycle over the tectonic timescale. This dissertation establishes the timing of the last deglaciation of the Ross Sea Sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), addressing the question of whether grounded ice in the Ross Embayment deglaciated entirely in the Holocene or earlier. ¹⁰Be surface exposure dating of granitic glacial erratic boulders indicates that the onset of sustained retreat from the local Last Glacial Maximum started at 18.6 ± 1.1 ka, and that sustained retreat occurred into the middle Holocene. We attribute most of this retreat to temperature and radiative forcing of the ablation zone in McMurdo Sound with only the final stages of retreat possibly influenced by Holocene grounding line retreat. The mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) represents a transition from predominantly 40-kyr climate cycles to predominantly 100-kyr cycles in the absence of any change in orbital forcing. Here I combine all existing records of SST (n=7) and δ¹³C (n=17) that span the entirety of the last 2 Ma and use principal component analysis to detect the shared global signal of these records across the MPT. I also develop stacks of ice volume, ocean basin-scale δ¹³C gradients and CO₂ reconstructions in an attempt to characterize the interaction between deep ocean circulation and climate change across the MPT. I find that the characteristic change in cyclicity of the MPT appears in SST, δ¹³C and ice-volume reconstructions. I interpret marine isotope stage (MIS) 23 (~900 ka) as a skipped interglacial that led to MIS 25- 21 as being the first 100-kyr period, potentially initiating the 100-kyr cycle during the rest of the Pleistocene. I also find that the largest global negative δ¹³C excursion in the Pleistocene occurred during the glacial periods MIS 24 and MIS 22. This excursion is likely related to a mean shift to a reduced glacial-period AMOC across the MPT that is observed in multiple AMOC strength reconstructions, and that I interpret as a key component of the MPT. The topography of southern Alaska has been shown to have likely experienced rapid exhumation during the early Pliocene stating ~5-6 Ma. Using δD measurements on OH- groups of clay minerals, I constrain the change in isotopic composition of paleo-meteoric water from the Miocene-Holocene in the interior of Alaska as a proxy for the surface uplift history of Alaskan topography via its control on the δD signal of surface water. My results suggest that there was rapid surface uplift of the several mountain ranges encompassing southern Alaska during the period from ~6.5-3 Ma. Close