Characteristics and sources of tephra layers in the EPICA-Dome C ice record (East Antarctica): Implications for past atmospheric circulation and ice core stratigraphic correlations

• Published in: Earth and Planetary Science Letters
• Main Authors: Narcisi, B., Petit, Jean-Robert, Delmonte, B., Basile-Doelsch, Isabelle, Maggi, V.
• Other Authors: Italian National agency for new technologies, Energy and sustainable economic development Frascati (ENEA), 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), Dipartimento Scienze Ambientali (DSA), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca = University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB), Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement (CEREGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), IRD Reunion, European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2005
• Subjects: Tephra; Antarctic ice cores; EPICA-Dome C ice core; stratigraphic correlation; palaeoatmospheric circulation; [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Byrd; Dome Fuji; East Antarctica; Marie Byrd Land; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; EPICA; ice core; South Atlantic Ocean
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-00374882; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2005.09.005

International audience Thirteen discrete air-fall tephra layers were identified in the last 200,000-yr section of the EPICA-Dome C ice record drilled in the East Antarctic plateau (75°06′S, 123°21′E). Quantitative grain size, glass particle morphology, and the grain-discrete major element composition of the glass fraction of these layers were investigated. Through comparison with literature data on the rock composition of Quaternary volcanic centres located within and around Antarctica, five tephra layers were attributed to South Sandwich volcanoes in the South Atlantic Ocean, two to South Shetland volcanoes (northern Antarctic Peninsula), two to Andean volcanoes, and four to Antarctic (Marie Byrd Land and Melbourne) provinces. The abundance of layers originating in the southern part of the Atlantic confirms that westerly atmospheric circulation spiralling towards East Antarctica prevailed over the last 200 ka. Moreover, the record of events from Antarctic centres suggests that atmospheric trajectories from West to East Antarctica can also be significant. A few ash layers are geochemically distinct and appear equivalent to levels from Vostok and Dome Fuji deep ice records, located ca. 600 km and ca. 2000 km, respectively, from Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. These layers provide unambiguous markers for future correlation with other Antarctic ice cores and circumpolar marine climatic records. They also provide reliable constraints to get a common timescale by glaciological modelling, and represent a first step towards absolute ice core dating.