Determining the age distribution of Colle Gnifetti, Monte Rosa, Alps, by combining ice cores, ground-penetrating radar and a simple flow model
Ice cores from cold Alpine glaciers may provide unique paleoclimate information fromnon-polar latitudes. We explore the three-dimensional internal age distribution of the small cold glaciersaddle (Colle Gnifetti, Monte Rosa, Italy/Switzerland) to compare the age/depth relations from fourlocal deep i...
| Published in: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
INT GLACIOL SOC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/25894/ https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.40891 |
| Summary: | Ice cores from cold Alpine glaciers may provide unique paleoclimate information fromnon-polar latitudes. We explore the three-dimensional internal age distribution of the small cold glaciersaddle (Colle Gnifetti, Monte Rosa, Italy/Switzerland) to compare the age/depth relations from fourlocal deep ice cores. Tracking isochronous refection horizons detected by ground-penetrating radar(GPR) among the core locations reveals consistent dating up to 80 yearsbp. This approach is confned torecent ages,duetothelackofclearrefectionsbelowthefrn/icetransition.Weattempttoovercomethislimitation by including a two-dimensional fow model adapted to the GPR-derived surface accumulationand ice thickness distribution. Modeled and GPR isochrones are compared, indicating agreement inshape but featuring a potential offset of 0–3.5m. The modeled isochrones are interpolated to the corearray with ages assigned according to the ice-core datings. The resulting age distribution is consistentup to 110 yearsbp, with age uncertainties increasing from 7 to>80 years in the lower half of the ice.This combination of methods is novel for Alpine sites and may be adapted for spatial extrapolation ofice properties other than age |
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