| Summary: | The Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru (13°56'S; 70°50'W) has been the focus of a paleoclimatic and glaciological program since 1976 (Thompson, 1979; Thompson et al., 1984a). The central objective of the Quelccaya program was accomplished with the extraction of a 1500-year paleoclimatic record for tropical South America determined from microparticle concentration, oxygen-isotope, accumulation and conductivity measurements from ice cores (Thompson et al., 1984 a,b; 1985a; 1986). However, accurate interpretation of details of individual parameters within this record requires knowledge of how the annual signals extracted from deep cores reflect the original input signal. This paper deals only with microparticle concentrations and oxygen isotopes by determining post-depositional changes in their signals. This study attempts to ascertain the degree to which natural near surface processes and sampling procedures affect the initial input signal. The included data exhibit relatively consistent trends for which possible explanations are explored. No embargo
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