Measurements of 14 C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14 CH 4 and 14 CO production rates
Carbon-14 ( 14 C) is incorporated into glacial ice by trapping of atmospheric gases as well as direct near-surface in situ cosmogenic production. 14 C of trapped methane ( 14 CH 4 ) is a powerful tracer for past CH 4 emissions from “old” carbon sources such as permafrost and marine CH 4 clathrates....
Published in: | Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta |
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2023
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Online Access: | http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1737573 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1737573 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 |
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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1737573 2023-09-05T13:14:59+02:00 Measurements of 14 C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14 CH 4 and 14 CO production rates Petrenko, Vasilii V. Severinghaus, Jeffrey P. Schaefer, Hinrich Smith, Andrew M. Kuhl, Tanner Baggenstos, Daniel Hua, Quan Brook, Edward J. Rose, Paul Kulin, Robb Bauska, Thomas Harth, Christina Buizert, Christo Orsi, Anais Emanuele, Guy Lee, James E. Brailsford, Gordon Keeling, Ralph Weiss, Ray F. 2023-08-18 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1737573 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1737573 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1737573 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1737573 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 doi:10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 58 GEOSCIENCES 2023 ftosti https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 2023-08-19T22:50:45Z Carbon-14 ( 14 C) is incorporated into glacial ice by trapping of atmospheric gases as well as direct near-surface in situ cosmogenic production. 14 C of trapped methane ( 14 CH 4 ) is a powerful tracer for past CH 4 emissions from “old” carbon sources such as permafrost and marine CH 4 clathrates. 14 C in trapped carbon dioxide ( 14 CO 2 ) can be used for absolute dating of ice cores. In situ produced cosmogenic 14 C in carbon monoxide ( 14 CO) can potentially be used to reconstruct the past cosmic ray flux and past solar activity. Unfortunately, the trapped atmospheric and in situ cosmogenic components of 14 C in glacial ice are difficult to disentangle and a thorough understanding of the in situ cosmogenic component is needed in order to extract useful information from ice core 14 C. Here, we analyzed very large (≈1000 kg) ice samples in the 2.26–19.53 m depth range from the ablation zone of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, to study in situ cosmogenic production of 14 CH 4 and 14 CO. All sampled ice is >50 ka in age, allowing for the assumption that most of the measured 14 C originates from recent in situ cosmogenic production as ancient ice is brought to the surface via ablation. Our results place the first constraints on cosmogenic 14 CH 4 production rates and improve on prior estimates of 14 CO production rates in ice. We find a constant 14 CH 4 / 14 CO production ratio (0.0076 ± 0.0003) for samples deeper than 3 m, which allows the use of 14 CO for correcting the 14 CH 4 signals for the in situ cosmogenic component. Our results also provide the first unambiguous confirmation of 14 C production by fast muons in a natural setting (ice or rock) and suggest that the 14 C production rates in ice commonly used in the literature may be too high. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctica Ice ice core permafrost Taylor Glacier SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Taylor Glacier ENVELOPE(162.167,162.167,-77.733,-77.733) Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 177 62 77 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
op_collection_id |
ftosti |
language |
unknown |
topic |
58 GEOSCIENCES |
spellingShingle |
58 GEOSCIENCES Petrenko, Vasilii V. Severinghaus, Jeffrey P. Schaefer, Hinrich Smith, Andrew M. Kuhl, Tanner Baggenstos, Daniel Hua, Quan Brook, Edward J. Rose, Paul Kulin, Robb Bauska, Thomas Harth, Christina Buizert, Christo Orsi, Anais Emanuele, Guy Lee, James E. Brailsford, Gordon Keeling, Ralph Weiss, Ray F. Measurements of 14 C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14 CH 4 and 14 CO production rates |
topic_facet |
58 GEOSCIENCES |
description |
Carbon-14 ( 14 C) is incorporated into glacial ice by trapping of atmospheric gases as well as direct near-surface in situ cosmogenic production. 14 C of trapped methane ( 14 CH 4 ) is a powerful tracer for past CH 4 emissions from “old” carbon sources such as permafrost and marine CH 4 clathrates. 14 C in trapped carbon dioxide ( 14 CO 2 ) can be used for absolute dating of ice cores. In situ produced cosmogenic 14 C in carbon monoxide ( 14 CO) can potentially be used to reconstruct the past cosmic ray flux and past solar activity. Unfortunately, the trapped atmospheric and in situ cosmogenic components of 14 C in glacial ice are difficult to disentangle and a thorough understanding of the in situ cosmogenic component is needed in order to extract useful information from ice core 14 C. Here, we analyzed very large (≈1000 kg) ice samples in the 2.26–19.53 m depth range from the ablation zone of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, to study in situ cosmogenic production of 14 CH 4 and 14 CO. All sampled ice is >50 ka in age, allowing for the assumption that most of the measured 14 C originates from recent in situ cosmogenic production as ancient ice is brought to the surface via ablation. Our results place the first constraints on cosmogenic 14 CH 4 production rates and improve on prior estimates of 14 CO production rates in ice. We find a constant 14 CH 4 / 14 CO production ratio (0.0076 ± 0.0003) for samples deeper than 3 m, which allows the use of 14 CO for correcting the 14 CH 4 signals for the in situ cosmogenic component. Our results also provide the first unambiguous confirmation of 14 C production by fast muons in a natural setting (ice or rock) and suggest that the 14 C production rates in ice commonly used in the literature may be too high. |
author |
Petrenko, Vasilii V. Severinghaus, Jeffrey P. Schaefer, Hinrich Smith, Andrew M. Kuhl, Tanner Baggenstos, Daniel Hua, Quan Brook, Edward J. Rose, Paul Kulin, Robb Bauska, Thomas Harth, Christina Buizert, Christo Orsi, Anais Emanuele, Guy Lee, James E. Brailsford, Gordon Keeling, Ralph Weiss, Ray F. |
author_facet |
Petrenko, Vasilii V. Severinghaus, Jeffrey P. Schaefer, Hinrich Smith, Andrew M. Kuhl, Tanner Baggenstos, Daniel Hua, Quan Brook, Edward J. Rose, Paul Kulin, Robb Bauska, Thomas Harth, Christina Buizert, Christo Orsi, Anais Emanuele, Guy Lee, James E. Brailsford, Gordon Keeling, Ralph Weiss, Ray F. |
author_sort |
Petrenko, Vasilii V. |
title |
Measurements of 14 C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14 CH 4 and 14 CO production rates |
title_short |
Measurements of 14 C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14 CH 4 and 14 CO production rates |
title_full |
Measurements of 14 C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14 CH 4 and 14 CO production rates |
title_fullStr |
Measurements of 14 C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14 CH 4 and 14 CO production rates |
title_full_unstemmed |
Measurements of 14 C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14 CH 4 and 14 CO production rates |
title_sort |
measurements of 14 c in ancient ice from taylor glacier, antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14 ch 4 and 14 co production rates |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1737573 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1737573 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(162.167,162.167,-77.733,-77.733) |
geographic |
Taylor Glacier |
geographic_facet |
Taylor Glacier |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Ice ice core permafrost Taylor Glacier |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Ice ice core permafrost Taylor Glacier |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1737573 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1737573 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 doi:10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 |
container_title |
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta |
container_volume |
177 |
container_start_page |
62 |
op_container_end_page |
77 |
_version_ |
1776196847194341376 |