Proxies and measurement techniques for mineral dust in Antarctic ice cores

• Published in: Environmental Science & Technology
• Main Authors: Ruth, Urs, Barbante, C., Bigler, M., Delmonte, B., Fischer, Hubertus, Gabrielli, P., Gaspari, V., Kaufmann, P., Lambert, F., Maggi, V., Marino, F., Petit, J. R., Steffensen, J. P., Udisti, R., Wagenbach, D., Wegner, Anna, Wolff, E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Antarctic; Coulter; Dronning Maud Land; Antarc*; EPICA; ice core
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/18051/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/18051/1/Rut2007c.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.30829; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.30829.d001

To improve quantitative interpretation of ice core aeolian dust records, a systematic methodological comparison was made. This involved methods for water-insoluble particle counting (Coulter Counter and laser-sensing particle detector), soluble ion analysis (ion chromatography, and continuous flow analysis), elemental analysis (inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy at pH 1 and after full acid digestion), and water-insoluble elemental analysis (proton induced X-ray emission). Antarctic ice core samples covering the last deglaciation from the EPICA Dome C (EDC) and the EPICA Dronning Maud Land (EDML) cores were used. All methods correlate very well amongst each other, but the ratios of glacial age to Holocene concentrations, which are typically a factor ~100, differ between the methods by up to a factor of 2 with insoluble particles showing the largest variability. The recovery of ICP-MS measurements depends on the digestion method and is different for different elements and during different climatic periods. EDC and EDML samples have similar dust composition, which suggests a common dust source or a common mixture of sources for the two sites. The analysed samples further reveal a change of dust composition during the last deglaciation.