Records of past ice sheet fluctuations in interior East Antarctica

The results of a land-based multi-disciplinary study of the past ice surface elevation in the Grove Mountains
of interior East Antarctica support a dynamic evolution of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS). Moraine boulders of
sedimentary rocks and spore pollen assemblage imply a significant shrinkage of the EAIS, with its margin retreating
south of the Grove Mountains (~450 km south of recent coast line) before the middle Pliocene. The exposure ages
indicate that the ice sheet subsequently re-advanced, with the ice surface rising locally at least 450 m higher than today.
It then went back down constantly from before 2.3 Ma to 1.6 Ma. The glacial topography and existence of soil show
that the ice surface fluctuation continued since the early Quaternary, but with highest levels never exceeding ~100 m
higher than today.