Publication Date:
2024-02-03
Description:
We analyse ice cores from Vestfonna ice cap (Nordaustlandet, Svalbard). Oxygen isotopic measurements were made on three firn cores (6.0, 11.0 and 15.5 m deep) from the two highest summits of the glacier located on the SW-NE and NW-SE central ridges. Sub-annual d18O cycles were preserved and could be counted visually in the uppermost parts of the cores, but deeper layers were affected by post-depositional smoothing. A pronounced d18O minimum was found near the bottom of the three cores. We consider candidates for this d18O signal to be a valuable reference horizon since it is also seen elsewhere in Nordaustlandet. We attribute it to isotopically depleted snow precipitation, which NCEP/NCAR reanalysis shows was unusual for Vestfonna, and came from northerly air during the cold winter of 1994/95. Finding the 1994/95 time marker allows establishment of a precise depth/age scale for the three cores. The derived annual accumulation rates indirectly fill a geographical gap in mass balance measurements and thus provide information on spatial and temporal variability of precipitation over the glacier for the period spanned by the cores (1992-2009). Comparing records at the two locations also reveals that the snow net accumulation at the easternmost part of Vestfonna was only half of that in the western part over the last 17 years.
Keywords:
Accumulation of snow/ice per year; Accumulation rate per year, standard deviation; Age, relative, number of years; Ahlmann_Ahl07; Ahlmann_Ahl09; Austfonna99; Eastern_E07; Elevation of event; Event label; Ice_core_diverse; ICEDRILL; Ice drill; International Polar Year (2007-2008); International Polar Year 2007-2008; Interval comments; IPY; IPY-4; Isotope ratio mass spectrometry; Latitude of event; Longitude of event; Reference/source; Sample ID; Sampling/drilling ice; Svalbard; Vestfonna95; δ18O, standard deviation; δ18O, water
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 36 data points
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