The role of an Arctic ice shelf in the climate of the MIS 6 glacial maximum (140 ka)

During the last decade, Arctic icebreaker and nuclear submarine expeditions have revealed large-scale Pleistocene glacial erosion on the Lomonosov Ridge, Chukchi Borderland and along the Northern Alaskan margin indicating that the glacial Arctic Ocean hosted large Antarctic-style ice shelves. Dating of sediment cores indicates that the most extensive and deepest ice grounding occurred during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6. The precise extents of Pleistocene ice shelves in the Arctic Ocean are unknown but seem comparable to present existing Antarctic ice shelves. How would an Antarctic-style ice shelf in the MIS 6 Arctic Ocean influence the Northern Hemisphere climate? Could it have impacted on the surface mass balance (SMB) of the MIS 6 Eurasian ice sheet and contributed to its large southward extent? We use an Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM) to investigate the climatic impacts of both a limited MIS 6 ice shelf covering portions of the Canada Basin and a fully ice shelf cove...