Four approaches leading to the age scale of the Young Island ice core

• Main Authors: Moser, Dorothea, Thomas, Elizabeth
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre 2021
• Subjects: "EARTH SCIENCE","PALEOCLIMATE","ICE CORE RECORDS","IONS"; "EARTH SCIENCE","PALEOCLIMATE","ICE CORE RECORDS","ISOTOPES"; "EARTH SCIENCE","PALEOCLIMATE","ICE CORE RECORDS","PARTICULATE MATTER"; "EARTH SCIENCE","PALEOCLIMATE","ICE CORE RECORDS","VOLCANIC DEPOSITS"; "EARTH SCIENCE","PALEOCLIMATE","ICE CORE RECORDS"; sub-Antarctic Island; age scales; ice core; Antarctic; Balleny Islands; Moser; Ross Sea; Young Island; Antarc*; Swiss Polar Institute
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5285/8b60d15f-c8a5-4178-b7c2-0fef4a2717d2; https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01586

Young Island is a new ice core drilling site uniquely positioned to give insight into the (sub-)Antarctic climate. This dataset contains four preliminary dating approaches that lay the foundation for the age scale of the Young Island ice core presented in Moser et al. (2021). Funding was provided to SubICE by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, the Swiss Polar Institute, and Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc (grant no. SubICE). ERT received core funding from NERC to the British Antarctic Survey's Ice Dynamics and Palaeoclimate programme. DEM was supported by BAS, Cambridge, and the NERC C-CLEAR doctoral training programme (grant no. NE/S007164/1). JBP received grant funding from the Australian Government. : Dating approach A is based on d18O troughs interpreted as winter signatures. Dating approach B relies on peaks in the upper nitrate (NO3-) record and a linear regression of the derived mean accumulation. Dating approach C uses peaks of MSA-, SO42-, Br- and NO3- together with melt layers >10 cm thickness used as summer indicators. Dating approach D was conducted using the ratio of non-sea-salt-SO42- to sea-salt-Na+ together with MSA- to identify troughs as winter markers. Detailed descriptions of the four age scale approaches A-D are given in Moser et al. (2021). : The ice core was drilled on the southern tip of Young Island (Place ID: 16382), which is part of the Balleny Islands (Place ID: 843), in the northwestern Ross Sea (Place ID: 12384). The ice core site is an ice saddle 238 m above sea level (a.s.l.). The ice core reaches from the glacier surface to 16.92 m depth. The ice core was drilled on 4 February 2017. According to our final age scale (C-D), the profile covers the period 2016 until 1995 +/- 2 years. Sample analysis and processing was conducted using Office Excel 2016 and IGOR Pro v8. : The error of the four age scales differs between the approaches due to the various applied proxies and annual layer counting techniques discussed (see Moser et al., 2021 for details).