The Nickel NICL Tour

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The Nickel NICL Tour
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GISP 2D, 2114 m
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Detail of time-stratigraphic record in ice cores

• In some cores, where accumulation rate is high,
  sub-annual (seasonal) records are preserved
• Allows exact age determination of ice, for
  thousands of years in the past

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The National Ice Core Laboratory
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Holocene
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115KYBP
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But ice cores arent ONLY a tool forclimate
change research

• One example
• Ice sheets preserve trace elements deposited from
  the atmosphere
• Gives natural (pre-industrial) abundances, as
  baseline for
• modern, disturbed conditions

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Findings about trace elements

• In pre-industrial times, quiescent worldwide
  volcano degassing contributed most of the masses
  of trace elements in the ice (much more than can
  be accounted for by the dust and sea salt
  present).

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Another example about the trace element record of
past times

• Pollution to the Antarctic whats the evidence
  of when industrial pollution started to show up?
• Tentative finding Lead (Pb) isotopes indicate
  that it first showed up in the 19th century, BUT
  there are intriguing strata of the same isotopic
  composition from three centuries before that.

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A third trace-element example

• Volcanic ash blankets that fall onto the Earths
  surface - - are they big sources of extra trace
  metals?
• Finding No, although plumes of quiescently
  degassing volcanoes have extra trace elements,
  big ash explosions only have the tiny amounts
  found in ordinary rock

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Where will the CO2 go after we run out of
gas(after a few centuries)

• It will return (more slowly) to the various
  reservoirs in which we store carbon
• on this planet
• standing plants (small mass, rapid response)
• soils (humus)
• surface layers of ocean
• deeper ocean
• carbonate rocks (huge mass, v. slow response)

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New West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) coreto be
drilled during the IPY in 07 08

• Goals and justification for this new core and
  site
• Need 80Ky record, from high-accumulation zone,
• hopefully with annual layers
• Climate forcing by greenhouse gasses
• Role of Antarc. in initiating rapid climate
  change
• Relationship between northern, tropical and
  southern climates
• Stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and sea
  level change

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More detailed scientific questions

• Are the climate changes during the anthropogenic
  era unprecedented?
• How has climate varied during the last 10,000
  years?
• Do solar variability and volcanic emission affect
  climate?
• What was the role of the Antarctic in climate
  change as the last ice age was ending?
• What are the interactions between terrestrial
  biology and biogeochemical cycles?
• What are the interactions between southern ocean
  biology and biogeochemical cycles?
• Are microorganisms metabolically active in
  ancient ice?
• Does the biology within ice sheets reflect the
  climate when the ice was deposited?

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Ice cores - - not the only game in town.Other
paleoclimate proxies

• 1. Tree rings
• fine time resolution, fine areal emphasis
• 2. Corals
• rings like trees, but tell temp. chem. of
  oceans
• 3. Ocean and lake sediments
• very long time record, coarse resolution
• 4. Spelean realm stalactites, stalagmites
• Well dated, long records from groundwater.
• 5. Packrat middens
• Localized, long-term records from pollen

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THE END
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Ice Core Lab Floor Plan
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Core processing line in action
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Another (related) example

• Do falls of volcanic ash (tephra) bring with them
  large amounts of excess, available trace metals,
  to their localities of deposition?
• Tephra falls are preserved in ice

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Finding

• Tephra is not a source of extra trace elements,
  to the oceans or land on which it falls
• It has trace element abundance no higher than
  ordinary volcanic rock, of its type
• (volcanic explosion are
  high-energy, high-entropy processes,
• with little
  potential for fractionation)

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Relative roles of dust and volcano emissions as
sourcesof atmospheric deposition of trace metals
(to ice sheets).

• From field and lab work measuring worldwide
  magnitude of volcano trace metal injections into
  the atmosphere
• and amounts of trace metals in Antarctic ice
• Points to the following
• Volcanoes accounted for most of the atmospheric
  trace metals in the pre-industrial environment.
• Only in very dusty times does dust account for a
  big fraction.
• Hinkley et al., Earth and Planetary Science
  Letters, 1999 Matsumoto Hinkley, same journal,
  2001 other papers

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A. Countries with formal, dedicated ice core
storage labs

• Argentina - - mountain cores
• Australia - - Antarctic cores
• Denmark - - Greenland cores
• India - - mountain and polar cores
• (under construction)
• Japan - - Antarctic cores
• U.S.A. - - polar cores

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B. Countries with substantial ice holdings and
facilities for analysis

• China - - mountain and polar cores
• France - - Antarctic cores
• Germany - - polar cores
• Russia - - polar and other cores
• (some cores kept in ideal
  storage conditions
• of the East Antarctic
  Plateau)
• United Kingdom - - polar cores

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1. Countries with expanding field acquisition and
   analytical programs, and planned or needed
   storage facilities

• Brazil
• Chile
• Italy
• Switzerland

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Storage conditions are favorable for preserving
records of atmospheric gases

• Japanese lab stores ice at
• 50o C.to prevent escape
• of clathrate hydrates
• U.S. lab stores ice at 36o C.