Trapped Gas Composition and Chronology of the Vostok Ice Core

• Main Authors: Bender, Michael, Suwa, Makoto
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: IEDA: US Antarctic Program Data Center 2007
• Subjects: Antarctic Glaciology; Vostok Ice Core; Chemistry:Fluid; Geochronology; Ice Core Records; Paleoclimate; Antarctica; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Atmosphere; Cryosphere; Lake Vostok; Vostok; US Antarctic Program Data Center (USAP-DC); Antarctic; Greenland; Vostok Station; Antarc*; Greenland Ice Sheet Project; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://get.iedadata.org/metadata/iso/609311

Abstract: This data set includes a time scale for the Vostok ice core, retrieved from Vostok Station on the East Antarctic Plateau. This chronology is derived by orbitally tuning to molecular oxygen to nitrogen (O₂/N₂) ratios in occluded air for depths deeper than 1550 m (greater than 112,000 years old), and by gas correlation to the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) chronology for the ice core section that is shallower than 1422 m (less than 102,000 years old). Because of poor gas preservation in air bubbles in shallower depths, investigators could only constrain the Vostok chronology for the section deeper than 1550 m by O₂/N₂. Thus for the shallower section of the core, they synchronized the Vostok delta oxygen-18 (&delta;¹⁸O) and methane (CH₄) measurements to those of the GISP2 to obtain the chronology (see Bender, et al. 2006). Note, CH₄ data are not included in this data set. Investigators analyzed the O₂/N₂ and the<em><strong> </strong></em>&delta;¹⁸O record ratios for approximately the past 115,000 to 400,000 years in the Vostok ice core. They combined new measurements for O₂/N₂ and &delta;¹⁸O with data from Bender (2002) and Petit, et al. (1999), respectively. Data are in Microsoft Excel format and are available via FTP.