Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A GCM study of Antarctic glaciation

  • Original Articles
  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An atmospheric general circulation model, the NCAR CCM, has been used to investigate the possible effects of two specific tectonic mechanisms on Antarctic glaciation. These two mechanisms are: (1) closing the Drake Passage (connecting South America with Antarctica), which is assumed to effectively represent an increased meridional heat transport by the ocean; and (2) changing the elevation of Antarctica. Perpetual season (summer and winter) and seasonal cycle simulations with warmer sea-surface temperatures and no sea ice prescribed for mid- to high-latitude southern oceans have been made with both present-day (high) Antarctic elevations and with low Antarctic elevations (all points ≤200 m). The results suggest a relatively minor role for oceanic heat transport in the formation/elimination of Antarctic glaciation. That is, under the warmer conditions inferred to have prevailed prior to the opening of the Drake Passage, conditions would still have been favorable for the maintenance of an Antarctic ice-sheet. If anything, a moderate ocean warming would promote glaciation, by increasing snowfall. Lowering the elevation of Antarctica has a larger effect on the model simulations, reducing the likelihood of glacial conditions. In the absence of snowcover, summer temperatures over Antarctica can warm considerably, leading to a monsoon-like circulation. However, it may be difficult to achieve such snow-free conditions, even with greatly increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. A tundra-like climate is the closest the model has come to representing a non-glacial climate, even when both seasurface temperatures and elevations are maximally varied.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Axelrod DI (1984) An interpretation of Cretaceous and Tertiary biota in polar regions. Paleogeogr Paleoclimatol Paleoecol 45:105–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Barker PF, Burrell J (1977) The opening of Drake Passage. Marine Geol 25:15–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Barker PF, Burrell J (1982) The influence upon southern ocean circulation, sedimentation, and climate of the opening of Drake Passage. In: Craddock C (ed) Antarctic geoscience. University of Wisconsin, Madison, pp 377–385

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett PJ, Elston DP, Harwood DM, McKelvey BC, Webb P-N (1987) Mid-Cenozoic record of glaciation and sealevel change on the margin of the Victoria Land basin, Antarctica. Geology 15:634–637

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett PJ, Hambrey MJ, Barrera E, Harwood DM, Webb P-N (1988) Middle Cenozoic glacial and sea level history from CIROS-1 drillhole, Victoria Land basin, Antarctica. EOS Am Geophys Union 69:383

    Google Scholar 

  • Barron EJ (1983) A warm, equable Cretaceous: The nature of the problem. Earth Sci Rev 19:305–338

    Google Scholar 

  • Barron EJ, Harrison CGA, Sloan JL, Hay WW (1981) Pateogeography 180 million years ago to the present. Eclogae Geol Helv 74:443–470

    Google Scholar 

  • Barron EJ, Washington WM (1984) The role of geographic variables in explaining paleoclimates: results from Cretaceous climate model sensitivity studies. J Geophys Res 89:1267–1279

    Google Scholar 

  • Barron EJ, Washington WM (1985) Warm Cretaceous climates: high atmospheric CO2 as a plausible mechanism. In: Sundquist ET, Broecker WS (eds) The carbon cycle and atmospheric CO2: natural variations Archean to present. Geophys Monogr Washington 32:546–553

  • Barry RG (1981) Mountain weather and climate. Methuen, London, pp 313

    Google Scholar 

  • Berner RA, Barron EJ (1984) Comments on the BLAG model: factors affecting atmospheric CO2 and temperature over the past 100 million years. Am J Sci 284:1183–1192

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackmon ML (1986) Building, testing, and using a general circulation model. In: Wilebrand J, Anderson DLT (eds) Large-scale transport processes in oceans and atmospheres. Reidel, Dordrecht, pp 1–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Chervin RM (1980) On the simulation of climate and climate change with general circulation models. J Atmos Sci 37:1903–1913

    Google Scholar 

  • Chervin RM, Schneider SH (1976) Statistical significance of climate experiments with general circulation models. J Atmos Sci 33:405–412

    Google Scholar 

  • Creber GT, Chaloner WG (1985) Tree growth in the Mesozoic and early Tertiary and the reconstruction of paleoclimates. Paleogeogr Paleoclimatol Paleoecol 52:35–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowell JC (1982) Continental glaciation through geologic time. In: NRC Geophysics Committee (ed) Climate in earth history (Studies in geophysics). National Academy Press, Washington, pp 77–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowley TJ (1983) The geological record of climatic change. Rev Geophys Space Phys 21:828–877

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowley TJ, Short DA, Mengel JG, North GR (1986) Role of seasonality in the evolution of climate during the last 100 million years. Science 231:579–584

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalrymple PC (1966) A physical climatology of the Antarctic Plateau. In: Rubin MJ (ed) Studies in antarctic meteorology. Antarctic Res series. Am Geophys Un Washington 9:195–231

  • Foster RJ (1974) Eocene echinoids and the Drake Passage Nature 249:751

    Google Scholar 

  • Frakes LA (1979) Climates throughout geologic time. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 310

    Google Scholar 

  • Frakes LA (1986) Mesozoic-Cenozoic climatic history and causes of the glaciation. In: Hsü KJ (ed) Mesozoic and Cenozoic oceans. Geodynamics series. Am Geophys Un Washington 15:33–48

  • Frakes LA, Francis JE (1988) A guide to Phanerozoic cold polar climates from high-latitude ice-rafting in the Cretaceous. Nature 333:547–549

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt BG (1984) Polar glaciation and the genesis of ice ages. Nature 308:48–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemp EM (1978) Tertiary climatic evolution and vegetation history in the southeast Indian Ocean region. Paleogeogr Paleoclimatol Paleoecol 24:169–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemp EM, Barrett PJ (1975) Antarctic glaciation and early Tertiary vegetation. Nature 258:507–508

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennett JP (1977) Cenozoic evolution of Antarctic glaciation, the circum-Antarctic ocean, and their impact on global paleoceanography. J Geophys Res 82:3843–3860

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennett JP (1986) Miocene paleoceanography and plankton evolution. In: Hsü KJ (ed) Mesozoic and Cenozoic oceans. Geodynamics Series Am Geophys Un Washington 15:119–122

  • Kennett JP, Houtz RE, Andrews PB, Edwards AR, Gostin VA, Hajoś M, Hampton M, Jenkins DG, Margolis SV, Ovenshine AT, Perch-Nielsen K (1975) Cenozoic paleoceanography in the southwest Pacific Ocean, Antarctic glaciation, and the development of the circum-antarctic current. In: JP Kennett, RE Houtz (eds) Initial reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project 29. US Government Printing Office, Washington, pp 1155–1169

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennett JP, Shackleton NJ (1976) Oxygen isotopic evidence for the development of the psychrosphere 38 Myr ago. Nature 260:513–515

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutzbach JE, Guetter PJ (1986) The influence of changing orbital parameters and surface boundary conditions on climate simulations for the past 18000 years. J Atmos Sci 33:1726–1759

    Google Scholar 

  • Leg 113 Shipboard Scientific Party (1987) Glacial history of Antarctica. Nature 328:115–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Leg 119 Shipboard Scientific Party (1988) Early glaciation of Antarctica. Nature 333:303–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitus S (1982) Climatological Atlas of the World Ocean. NOAA Professional Paper 13, pp 173

  • Manabe S, Wetherald RT (1985) CO2 and hydrology. In: Manabe S (ed) Issues in atmospheric and ocean modeling Part A. Climate dynamics. Advances in geophysics 28. Academic Press, Orlando, pp 131–158

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews E (1983) Global vegetation and land use: New highresolution data bases for climate studies. J Climatol Appl Meteorol 22:474–487

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews RK, Poore RZ (1980) Tertiary δ18O record and glacio-eustatic sea-level fluctuations. Geology 8:501–504

    Google Scholar 

  • Muza JP, Williams DF, Sherwood WW Jr (1983) Paleogene oxygen isotope record for deep-sea drilling sites 511 and 512, subantarctic south Atlantic ocean: paleotemperatures, paleocenographic changes, and the Eocene/Oligocene boundary event. In: JH Blakeslee, M Lee (eds) Initial reports of the Deep sea Drilling Project 71. US Government Printing Office, Washington, pp 409–422

    Google Scholar 

  • North GR, Cahalan RF, Coakley JA (1981) Energy balance climate models. Rev Geophys Space Phys 19:91–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Pitcher EJ, Malone RC, Ramanathan V, Blackmon ML, Puri K, Bourke W (1983) January and July simulations with a spectral general circulation model. J Atmos Sci 40:580–604

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramanathan V, Lian MS, Cess RD (1979) Increased atmospheric CO2: zonal and seasonal estimates of the effects on the radiation energy balance and surface temperature. J Geophys Res 84:4949–4958

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramanathan V, Pitcher EJ, Malone RC, Blackmon ML (1983) The response of a spectral general circulation model to refinements in radiative processes. J Atmos Sci 40:605–631

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid JL, Nowlin WD Jr (1971) Transport of water through the Drake Passage. Deep-Sea Res 18:51–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin MJ (1964) Antarctic weather and climate. In: Odishaw H (ed) Research in geophysics 2: solid earth and interface phenomena. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 461–478

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B, Vernekar AD (1971) An equilibrium solution for the axially symmetric component of the Earth's macroclimate. J Geophys Res 76:1498–1524

    Google Scholar 

  • Savin SM (1977) The history of the Earth's surface temperature during the past 100 million years. Annu Rev Earth Planet Sci 5:319–355

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger ME (1986) Equilibrium and transient climatic warming induced by increased atmospheric CO2. Climate Dyn 1:35–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider SH, Thompson SL, Barron EJ (1985) Mid-Cretaceous continental surface temperatures: Are high CO2 concentrations needed to simulate above-freezing winter conditions? In: Sundquist ET, Broecker WS (eds) The carbon cycle and atmospheric CO2: natural variations Archean to present. Geophys Monogr Am Geophys Un Washington, 32:554–560

  • Schwerdtfeger W (1984) Weather and climate of the Antarctic. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 261 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackleton NJ (1986) Paleogene stable isotope events. Paleogeogr Paleoclimatol Paleoecol 57:91–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackleton NJ, Kennett JP (1975) Pateotemperature history of the Cenozoic and the initiation of Antarctic glaciation: Oxygen and carbon isotope analysis in dsdp sites 277, 279, and 281. In: JP Kennett, RE Houtz (eds) Initial reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project 29. US Government Printing Office, Washington, pp 743–755

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith AG, Hurley AM, Briden JC (1981) Phanerozoic Paleocontinental World Maps. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 102

    Google Scholar 

  • Washington WM, Meehl GA (1983) General circulation model experiments on the climatic effects due to a doubling and quadrupling of carbon dioxide concentration. J Geophys Res 88:6600–6610

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson DL, Kiehl JT, Ramanathan V, Dickinson RE, Hack JJ (1987) Description of NCAR community climate model (CCM1). NCAR technical note NCAR/TN-285+STR, Boulder, pp 112

  • Woodruff F, Savin SM, Douglas RG (1981) Miocene stable isotope record: A detailed deep Pacific Ocean study and its paleoclimatic implications. Science 212:665–668

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, PO Box 6666, 06511, New Haven, CT, USA

    Robert J Oglesby

Authors
  1. Robert J Oglesby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Oglesby, R.J. A GCM study of Antarctic glaciation. Climate Dynamics 3, 135–156 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01080365

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01080365

Keywords

Search

Navigation