Accumulation variability over a small area in east Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, as determined from shallow firn cores and snow pits:some implications for ice-core records

We investigate and quantify the variability of snow accumulation rate around a medium-depth firn core (1160 m) drilled in east Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica (75 degrees 00'S, 15 degrees 00'E; 3470 m h.a.e. (ellipsoidal height)). We present accumulation data from five snow pits and five sh...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Karlof, Lars, Isaksson, Elisabeth, Winther, Jan-Gunnar, Gundestrup, Niels, Meijer, Harro A. J., Mulvaney, Robert, Pourchet, Michel, Hofstede, Coen, Lappegard, Gaute, Pettersson, Rickard, Van den Broeke, Michiel, Van De Wal, Roderik S. W.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2005
Subjects:
POLAR ICE
SPATIAL VARIABILITY
KATABATIC WINDS
BOUNDARY-LAYER
DRILL SITES
SOUTH-POLE
CHEMISTRY
AEROSOL
AMUNDSENISEN
DEPTHS
Amundsenisen
Dronning Maud Land
South Pole
Antarc*
Antarctica
EPICA
ice core
Journal of Glaciology
South pole
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11370/e731b3c3-b04a-45ef-bd9a-497759978d53
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/accumulation-variability-over-a-small-area-in-east-dronning-maud-land-antarctica-as-determined-from-shallow-firn-cores-and-snow-pits(e731b3c3-b04a-45ef-bd9a-497759978d53).html
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Summary:We investigate and quantify the variability of snow accumulation rate around a medium-depth firn core (1160 m) drilled in east Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica (75 degrees 00'S, 15 degrees 00'E; 3470 m h.a.e. (ellipsoidal height)). We present accumulation data from five snow pits and five shallow (20 m) firn cores distributed within a 3.5-7 km distance, retrieved during the 2000/01 Nordic EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) traverse. Snow accumulation rates estimated for shorter periods show higher spatial variance than for longer periods. Accumulation variability as recorded from the firn cores and snow pits cannot explain all the variation in the ion and isotope time series; other depositional and post-depositional processes need to be accounted for. Through simple statistical analysis we show that there are differences in sensitivity to these processes between the analyzed species. Oxygen isotopes and sulphate are more conservative in their post-depositional behaviour than the more volatile acids, such as nitrate and to some degree chloride and methanesulphonic acid. We discuss the possible causes for the accumulation variability and the implications for the interpretation of ice-core records.

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