Effects of impurities on the ice microstructure of Monte Perdido Glacier, Central Pyrenees, NE Spain

• Published in: Annals of Glaciology
• Main Authors: González-Santacruz, Nicolás, Muñoz-Marzagon, Patricia, Bartolomé, Miguel, Moreno Caballud, Ana, Huidobro, Jennifer, Faria, Sergio Henrique
• Other Authors: Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Eusko Jaurlaritza
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2023
• Subjects: Glacial rheology; Glacial sedimentology; Ice core; Ice dynamics; Snow chemistry; Annals of Glaciology; ice core
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/366648; https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2023.66

© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The International Glaciological Society. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. Monte Perdido Glacier, located in the central Pyrenees, is one of the southernmost glaciers in Europe. Due to climate change, this glacier is suffering an accelerated mass loss, especially in the last decades. If the current trends persist, this glacier is expected to disappear in the next 50 years. As part of the efforts of the scientific community to increase the knowledge about this glacier, this research presents the first microstructural characterization of the Monte Perdido Glacier, focused on a high-impurity concentration segment that belongs to an ice core drilled in 2017. The results reveal the ice has a layering defined by air bubbles and non-soluble impurities. The bubble-defined layering exhibits features of both a primary (sedimentary) and a secondary (strain-induced) origin. We found a clear inverse correspondence between the particle concentration and the grains' size and roundness index. A preliminary micro-Raman characterization of the particles shows the occurrence of atacamite, anatase (likely related to ancient mining activities in the vicinity of the glacier) and quartz. The latter could be an indicator of mineral dust, probably suggesting the arrival of dust-laden air masses from the north of the African continent. This research was supported by the Spanish Government through the María de Maeztu excellence accreditation 2018–2022 (MDM-2017-0714) and by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI Spain) through the projects PaleoICE EXPLORA (CGL2015-72167-EXP) and iMechPro (RTI2018-100696-B-I00). NGS acknowledges a PhD grant from the Basque Government (PRE-2018-1-0116). Peer reviewed