Spatial pattern of accumulation at Taylor Dome during Marine Isotope Stage 4: stratigraphic constraints from Taylor Glacier

oleh: J. A. Menking, E. J. Brook, S. A. Shackleton, J. P. Severinghaus, M. N. Dyonisius, V. Petrenko, J. R. McConnell, R. H. Rhodes, T. K. Bauska, T. K. Bauska, D. Baggenstos, S. Marcott, S. Barker

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Copernicus Publications 2019-08-01

Deskripsi

<p>New ice cores retrieved from the Taylor Glacier (Antarctica) blue ice area contain ice and air spanning the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5–4 transition, a period of global cooling and ice sheet expansion. We determine chronologies for the ice and air bubbles in the new ice cores by visually matching variations in gas- and ice-phase tracers to preexisting ice core records. The chronologies reveal an ice age–gas age difference (<span class="inline-formula">Δ</span>age) approaching 10&thinsp;ka during MIS 4, implying very low snow accumulation in the Taylor Glacier accumulation zone. A revised chronology for the analogous section of the Taylor Dome ice core (84 to 55&thinsp;ka), located to the south of the Taylor Glacier accumulation zone, shows that <span class="inline-formula">Δ</span>age did not exceed 3&thinsp;ka. The difference in <span class="inline-formula">Δ</span>age between the two records during MIS 4 is similar in magnitude but opposite in direction to what is observed at the Last Glacial Maximum. This relationship implies that a spatial gradient in snow accumulation existed across the Taylor Dome region during MIS 4 that was oriented in the opposite direction of the accumulation gradient during the Last Glacial Maximum.</p>