Smoking guns and volcanic ash: the importance of sparse tephras in Greenland ice cores
Volcanic ash (fine-grained tephra) within Greenland ice cores can complement the understanding of past volcanism and its environmental and societal impacts. The presence of ash in sparse concentrations in the ice raises questions about whether such material represents primary ashfall in Greenland or...
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Norwegian Polar Institute
2020
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:9c757787ee2449f1b5507a647de6e633 2023-05-15T16:26:55+02:00 Smoking guns and volcanic ash: the importance of sparse tephras in Greenland ice cores Gill Plunkett Michael Sigl Jonathan R. Pilcher Joseph R. McConnell Nathan Chellman J.P. Steffensen Ulf Büntgen 2020-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.3511 https://doaj.org/article/9c757787ee2449f1b5507a647de6e633 EN eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3511/11020 https://doaj.org/toc/1751-8369 1751-8369 doi:10.33265/polar.v39.3511 https://doaj.org/article/9c757787ee2449f1b5507a647de6e633 Polar Research, Vol 39, Iss 0, Pp 1-11 (2020) primary ashfall resuspended volcanic ash volcanic eruptions katla dust storms tephrochronology Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.3511 2022-12-31T12:33:00Z Volcanic ash (fine-grained tephra) within Greenland ice cores can complement the understanding of past volcanism and its environmental and societal impacts. The presence of ash in sparse concentrations in the ice raises questions about whether such material represents primary ashfall in Greenland or resuspended (remobilized) material from continental areas. In this article, we investigate this issue by examining tephra content in quasi-annual samples from two Greenland ice cores during a period of ca. 20 years and considering their relationships with sulphur and particulate data from the same cores. We focus on the interval 815–835 CE as it encompasses a phase (818–822 CE) of heightened volcanogenic sulphur previously ascribed to an eruption of Katla, Iceland. We find that tephra is a frequent but not continuous feature within the ice, unlike similarly sized particulate matter. A solitary ash shard whose major element geochemistry is consistent with Katla corroborates the attribution of the 822±1 CE sulphur peak to this source, clearly showing that a single shard can signify primary ashfall. Other tephras are present in similarly low abundances, but their geochemistries are less certainly attributable to specific sources. Although these tephra shards tend to coincide with elevated sulphur and fine (<10 µm) particulates, they are not associated with increased coarse (>10 µm) particle concentrations that might be expected if the shards had been transported by dust storms. We conclude that the sparse shards derive from primary ashfall, and we argue that low tephra concentrations should not be dismissed as insignificant. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Greenland ice cores Iceland Katla Polar Research Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Greenland Katla ENVELOPE(-19.062,-19.062,63.631,63.631) Polar Research 39 0 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
primary ashfall resuspended volcanic ash volcanic eruptions katla dust storms tephrochronology Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 |
spellingShingle |
primary ashfall resuspended volcanic ash volcanic eruptions katla dust storms tephrochronology Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 Gill Plunkett Michael Sigl Jonathan R. Pilcher Joseph R. McConnell Nathan Chellman J.P. Steffensen Ulf Büntgen Smoking guns and volcanic ash: the importance of sparse tephras in Greenland ice cores |
topic_facet |
primary ashfall resuspended volcanic ash volcanic eruptions katla dust storms tephrochronology Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 |
description |
Volcanic ash (fine-grained tephra) within Greenland ice cores can complement the understanding of past volcanism and its environmental and societal impacts. The presence of ash in sparse concentrations in the ice raises questions about whether such material represents primary ashfall in Greenland or resuspended (remobilized) material from continental areas. In this article, we investigate this issue by examining tephra content in quasi-annual samples from two Greenland ice cores during a period of ca. 20 years and considering their relationships with sulphur and particulate data from the same cores. We focus on the interval 815–835 CE as it encompasses a phase (818–822 CE) of heightened volcanogenic sulphur previously ascribed to an eruption of Katla, Iceland. We find that tephra is a frequent but not continuous feature within the ice, unlike similarly sized particulate matter. A solitary ash shard whose major element geochemistry is consistent with Katla corroborates the attribution of the 822±1 CE sulphur peak to this source, clearly showing that a single shard can signify primary ashfall. Other tephras are present in similarly low abundances, but their geochemistries are less certainly attributable to specific sources. Although these tephra shards tend to coincide with elevated sulphur and fine (<10 µm) particulates, they are not associated with increased coarse (>10 µm) particle concentrations that might be expected if the shards had been transported by dust storms. We conclude that the sparse shards derive from primary ashfall, and we argue that low tephra concentrations should not be dismissed as insignificant. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gill Plunkett Michael Sigl Jonathan R. Pilcher Joseph R. McConnell Nathan Chellman J.P. Steffensen Ulf Büntgen |
author_facet |
Gill Plunkett Michael Sigl Jonathan R. Pilcher Joseph R. McConnell Nathan Chellman J.P. Steffensen Ulf Büntgen |
author_sort |
Gill Plunkett |
title |
Smoking guns and volcanic ash: the importance of sparse tephras in Greenland ice cores |
title_short |
Smoking guns and volcanic ash: the importance of sparse tephras in Greenland ice cores |
title_full |
Smoking guns and volcanic ash: the importance of sparse tephras in Greenland ice cores |
title_fullStr |
Smoking guns and volcanic ash: the importance of sparse tephras in Greenland ice cores |
title_full_unstemmed |
Smoking guns and volcanic ash: the importance of sparse tephras in Greenland ice cores |
title_sort |
smoking guns and volcanic ash: the importance of sparse tephras in greenland ice cores |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.3511 https://doaj.org/article/9c757787ee2449f1b5507a647de6e633 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-19.062,-19.062,63.631,63.631) |
geographic |
Greenland Katla |
geographic_facet |
Greenland Katla |
genre |
Greenland Greenland ice cores Iceland Katla Polar Research |
genre_facet |
Greenland Greenland ice cores Iceland Katla Polar Research |
op_source |
Polar Research, Vol 39, Iss 0, Pp 1-11 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3511/11020 https://doaj.org/toc/1751-8369 1751-8369 doi:10.33265/polar.v39.3511 https://doaj.org/article/9c757787ee2449f1b5507a647de6e633 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.3511 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
39 |
container_issue |
0 |
_version_ |
1766015933997907968 |