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Nine Centuries of Microparticle Deposition at the South Pole1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

E. Mosley-Thompson  and
L. G. Thompson
E. Mosley-Thompson
Affiliation:
Institute of Polar Studies, The Ohio State University, 125 So. Oval Mall, Columbus, Ohio 43210
L. G. Thompson
Affiliation:
Institute of Polar Studies, The Ohio State University, 125 So. Oval Mall, Columbus, Ohio 43210
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Abstract

The analysis of microparticles in a 101-m core from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica has revealed a substantial increase in total particle concentration between approximately 1450 and 1850 A.D., a period encompassing the latest neoglacial interval or Little Ice Age. It is likely that this reflects a simultaneous increase in the concentration of particulate material in the Antarctic atmosphere. This is important climatologically, for the Antarctic atmosphere may represent the closest approximation to the natural background aerosol. Thus cores from East Antarctica may contain long and detailed records of the natural global background aerosol. Such records are unavailable from any other medium. Additionally, a cyclical variation which appears to be annual has been detected in the South Pole particle record. These features allow construction of a relative time scale for ice cores older than 100 yr from regions of low accumulation (<10 g a−1) where many traditional techniques are not applicable. This is especially significant, as the comparison of climatic data extracted from ice cores with other records of proxy data depends upon the ability to assign an accurate time scale to the ice core. An estimated nine-century record of net annual accumulation at the South Pole has been compiled and the calculated error in the time scale is ±90 yr.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 1982 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1

Contribution No. 429 of the Institute of Polar Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210.

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