The marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is extremely susceptible to climate change, making it a key component in global sea level fluctuations. Significant changes are expected in the near future to the Amundsen Sea sector, which is predominantly drained by the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) and Thwaites Glacier (TG). However, our incomplete understanding of the long-term history of these glaciers' melting processes limited our capacity to forecast the behavior of the WAIS in the future. Here, we identified key climatic changes that correlate to WAIS advances and retreats since the late Miocene using sediments from the Amundsen Sea from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 379. Our data also demonstrate that ice sheet dynamics dominated the distal sedimentation process. The Thwaites Glacier is particularly susceptible to climate change. Thus, further global warming could cause Thwaites Glacier to collapse faster, thereby threatening the overall stability of the WAIS.
 

Amundsen Sea,West Antarctic Ice Sheet,Environmental magnetism,Late Miocene-Pleistocene