New constraints on the gas age-ice age difference along the EPICA ice cores, 0–50 kyr

• Main Authors: Loulergue, L., Parrenin, F., Blunier, T., Barnola, J.-M., Spahni, R., Schilt, A., Raisbeck, G., Chappellaz, J.
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Climate and Environmental Physics Bern (CEP), Physikalisches Institut Bern, Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE)-Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE), Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse (CSNSM), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; Antarctic; Dronning Maud Land; Greenland; Antarc*; EPICA; ice core
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00330728; https://hal.science/hal-00330728/document; https://hal.science/hal-00330728/file/cpd-3-435-2007.pdf

International audience Gas is trapped in polar ice sheets at ~50–120 m below the surface and is therefore younger than the surrounding ice. Firn densification models are used to evaluate this ice age-gas age difference (?age) in the past. However, such models are not well tested on low accumulation and cold sites of the East Antarctic plateau, especially for periods with different climatic conditions. Here we bring new constraints to test a firn densification model applied to the EPICA Dome C (EDC) site for the last 50 kyr, by linking the EDC ice core to the EPICA Dronning Maud Land (EDML) ice core, both in the ice phase (using volcanic horizons) and in the gas phase (using rapid methane variations). We use the structured 10 Be peak, occurring 41 kyr before present (BP) and due to the low geomagnetic field associated with the Laschamp event, to experimentally estimate the ?age and ?depth during this event. It allows us to evaluate the model and to link together climatic archives from EDC and EDML to NorthGRIP (Greenland). Our results reveal an overestimate of the ?age by the firn densification model during the last glacial period at EDC. Tests with different accumulation rates and temperature scenarios do not entirely resolve this discrepancy. Our finding suggests that the phase relationship between CO 2 and EDC temperature inferred at the start of the last deglaciation (lag of CO 2 by 800±600 yr) is overestimated and that the CO 2 increase could well have been in phase or slightly leading the temperature increase at EDC.