Ice core nitrogen isotopes archive dramatic changes in West Antarctic Ice Sheet thinning

King, Amy C. F.; Bauska, Thomas K.; Landais, Amaëlle; Martín, Carlos; Wolff, Eric W.

doi:10.5194/cp-22-1291-2026

Articles | Volume 22, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-1291-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-1291-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 7

Research article

|

14 Jul 2026

Research article |

| 14 Jul 2026

Ice core nitrogen isotopes archive dramatic changes in West Antarctic Ice Sheet thinning

Amy C. F. King, Thomas K. Bauska, Amaëlle Landais, Carlos Martín, and Eric W. Wolff

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-1291-2026-supplement

Data sets

Nitrogen isotope measurements from Skytrain Ice Core from 5.8-8.5 ka A. C. F. King et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.995773

Short summary

We show how measurements of nitrogen isotopes in Antarctic ice core records can be used to show dramatic thinning of an ice sheet during ice mass changes in the Holocene. Combining such measurements with proxies for ice sheet elevation could be a powerful tool for constraining the history of ice dynamics at sites which are sensitive to rapid changes, and could contribute to constraining ice sheet models.