Developing a 480,000 Year Climate Record for West Antarctica

This award is for support for two years of funding to develop a 480,000 year climate record for West Antarctica using samples obtained from a 600 meter 'horizontal ice core' from the Mt. Moulton blue ice field. Continuous analyses of the deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio of ice (dDice) and detailed analyses of the elemental/isotopic composition of trapped gases along the Mt. Moulton horizontal ice core will be made to confirm the continuous nature of the record, by comparison with the continuous Vostok ice core record, which spans the last 423 kyr. Once the continuous nature of the record has been confirmed, these results will be correlated with similar records from other Antarctic and Greenland ice cores. In addition, the radiometerically dated tephra layers from Mt. Moulton can then be transferred to other ice cores (namely Vostok) via the gas records (methane (CH4) and oxygen isotope (d18O) of paleoatmospheric O2) to improve the current ice core age models for these cores. Results from this study will be very useful in deciphering the recently published Taylor Dome dDice record in the context of the continent-wide climate history of Antarctica. The Moulton climate records will also be correlated with similar records from the Siple Dome and inland WAIS deep ice core sites when they become available.