Subtropical icebergs and freshwater forcing of climate

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This fascinating study uses a combination of high-resolution glacial numerical ocean circulation modeling and high-resolution multibeam bathymetry data to show that massive (up to 300m thick) icebergs and large volumes of meltwater were periodically transported along the east coast of North America to southern Florida during the last deglaciation (~21,000 to 6,000 years ago). These events would have been marked by the sudden appearance of enormous icebergs along the entire east coast of the United States, as far south as Miami, Florida.

Octo 2014: You can read more about this research in our latest paper publihsed in Nature Geoscience this month:

Hill, J.C. and Condron, A. (2014). Subtropical iceberg scours and meltwater routing in the deglacial western North Atlantic, Nature Geoscience, 10.1038/ngeo2267

Please contact Dr. Alan Condron with any questions you have via email or telephone (413 545 0229). Thanks!

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The above stylized image shows the massive icebergs that an observer sitting on a beach in southern Florida would have periodically seen drifting along the coast ~18,000 years ago.

The main reseachers on this project are Dr. Alan Condron (UMass Amherst) and Dr. Jenna Hill (CCU).


Disclaimer: This research was made possible by support from the Office of Science (BER) U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Please note that any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this on-line material are those of the author Alan Condron, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies. Please contact Dr. Alan Condron with any questions.