Featured Science Paper Rapid deglaciation of Marguerite Bay,
western Antarctic Peninsula in the Early Holocene This paper
reports new glacial geological data that provide evidence for
the timing of ice-sheet retreat and thinning at the end of the
last glaciation (~10,000 years ago) in Marguerite Bay, on the
west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. We have dated both the
length of time rock outcrops have been exposed, which allow us
to date the thinning of the ice sheet, and the record from
seabed sediments, which allows us to determine how the ice sheet
retreated across the continental shelf. The dating shows a
surprising pattern. About 9,600 years ago, the ice in Marguerite
Bay appears to have thinned very quickly indeed, an observation
that turns out to be consistent with several other datasets from
the same area (ice-shelf collapse histories, raised beaches and
lake sediment cores). Further north, around Vernadsky Station,
the ice-sheet retreat was much more gradual. Thus the rapid
retreat of ice in Margueri