Anomalous accumulation rates in the Vostok ice-core resulting from ice flow over Lake Vostok ...

• Main Authors: Leonard, Katherine, Bell, Robin E., Studinger, Michael, Tremblay, Bruno
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Columbia University 2004
• Subjects: Hydrology; Oceanography; FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences; Antarctic; Lake Vostok; Lorius; Antarc*; ice core
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8w95kr0; https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8W95KR0

The accumulation rate of snow is crucial to the development of accurate age-depth models for ice-cores. The dating of the Vostok ice-core assumes that accumulation rates generally vary linearly between the core site and the ice divide 250 km to the west [Jouzel et al., 1996; Lorius et al., 1985; Petit et al., 1999], an assumption which impacts the timing of prominent climatic transitions. We present evidence for a local accumulation rate anomaly at the ice surface above the western shoreline of Lake Vostok. A significant thickening between isochronous layers results from this geographically fixed high accumulation zone which can be stratigraphically traced to a depth of 820 – 1100 m in the Vostok ice-core, a portion known for its high accumulation rates and paleoclimate records that deviate from other Antarctic ice-core records. This non-climatic accumulation anomaly in the Vostok ice-core impacts the flow dependent age models and subsequent interpretations of sequencing of global climate shifts during the ...