Chronological characteristics for snow accumulation on Styx Glacier in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica
Yalalt Nyamgerel, Yeongcheol Han, Songyi Kim, Sang‐Bum Hong, Jeonghoon Lee, Soon Do Hur
Abstract
Abstract Under the potential to reconstruct the past climatic and atmospheric conditions from a deep ice core in the coastal Antarctic site (Styx Glacier), an 8.84 m long firn core (73°50.975′ S, 163°41.640′ E; 1623 m a.s.l.) was initially studied to propose a reliable age scale for the local estimation of snow accumulation rate. The seasonal variations of δ 18 O, methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and non-sea-salt sulfate (nssSO 4 2– ) were used for the firn core dating and revealed 25 annual peaks (from 1990 to 2014) with volcanic sulfate signal. The observed declining trend in annual accumulation rate with a mean value of 146 ± 60 kg m –2 a –1 is likely to be linked to the changes of sea-ice extent in the Ross Sea region. Moreover, the temporal variation of the annual mean δ 18 O, an annual flux of MSA and nssSO 4 2– also likely to be under the influence of ice-covered and open water area. This study suggests a potential to recover past changes in an oceanic environment and will be useful for the interpretation of the long ice core drilled at the same site.