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Title: Cosmogenic nuclide dating of two stacked ice masses: Ong Valley, Antarctica
Abstract. We collected a debris-rich ice core from a buried icemass in Ong Valley, located in the Transantarctic Mountains in Antarctica. Wemeasured cosmogenic nuclide concentrations in quartz obtained from the icecore to determine the age of the buried ice mass and infer the processesresponsible for the emplacement of the debris currently overlaying the ice.Such ice masses are valuable archives of paleoclimate proxies; however, thepreservation of ice beyond 800 kyr is rare, and therefore much effort hasbeen recently focused on finding ice that is older than 1 Myr. In Ong Valley,the large, buried ice mass has been previously dated at > 1.1 Ma.Here we provide a forward model that predicts the accumulation of thecosmic-ray-produced nuclides 10Be, 21Ne, and 26Al in quartzin the englacial and supraglacial debris and compare the model predictionsto measured nuclide concentrations in order to further constrain the age.Large downcore variation in measured cosmogenic nuclide concentrationssuggests that the englacial debris is sourced both from subglacially derivedmaterial and recycled paleo-surface debris that has experienced surfaceexposure prior to entrainment. We find that the upper section of the icecore is 2.95 + 0.18 / −0.22 Myr old. The average ice sublimation rate duringthis time period is 22.86 + 0.10 / −0.09 m Myr−1, and the surfaceerosion rate of the debris is 0.206 + 0.013 / −0.017 m Myr−1. Burialdating of the recycled paleo-surface debris suggests that the lower sectionof the ice core belongs to a separate, older ice mass which we estimate tobe 4.3–5.1 Myr old. The ages of these two stacked, separate ice masses canbe directly related to glacial advances of the Antarctic ice sheet andpotentially coincide with two major global glaciations during the early andlate Pliocene epoch when global temperatures and CO2 were higher thanpresent. These ancient ice masses represent new opportunities for gatheringancient climate information.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1735676
NSF-PAR ID:
10395169
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Cryosphere
Volume:
16
Issue:
7
ISSN:
1994-0424
Page Range / eLocation ID:
2793 to 2817
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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