Visual Stratigraphy-Based Age Scale Developed for the Shallow Mount Siple Firn Core, Antarctica
Here we present a case study for using visual stratigraphy to date a shallow firn core from coastal West Antarctica. The Mount Siple ice core has the potential to reconstruct climate in this data-sparse region over recent decades. Line scanned images of the 24 m firn core were used to generate a gre...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Geosciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/13/3/85 |
| _version_ | 1797611506020384768 |
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| author | Joseph W. Brown Dorothea E. Moser Daniel B. Emanuelsson Elizabeth R. Thomas |
| author_facet | Joseph W. Brown Dorothea E. Moser Daniel B. Emanuelsson Elizabeth R. Thomas |
| author_sort | Joseph W. Brown |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Here we present a case study for using visual stratigraphy to date a shallow firn core from coastal West Antarctica. The Mount Siple ice core has the potential to reconstruct climate in this data-sparse region over recent decades. Line scanned images of the 24 m firn core were used to generate a grey-scale, which displays variability consistent with annual cycles. The resulting Mount Siple age scale spans from 1998 ± 1 to 2017 CE. This study demonstrates that the seasonal changes in the grey-scale record provide an independent method of dating firn cores. However, the presence of melt layers at this site has introduced an error of ±1 year. Visual line stratigraphy has the unique advantage over traditional annual layer counting, based on chemical or isotopic species, of being non-destructive and relatively inexpensive. Visual line stratigraphy has proved to be an effective dating method for this site. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:28:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-034ba27be39241b5bd3580f37c5a59a3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3263 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:28:41Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geosciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-034ba27be39241b5bd3580f37c5a59a32023-11-17T11:20:00ZengMDPI AGGeosciences2076-32632023-03-011338510.3390/geosciences13030085Visual Stratigraphy-Based Age Scale Developed for the Shallow Mount Siple Firn Core, AntarcticaJoseph W. Brown0Dorothea E. Moser1Daniel B. Emanuelsson2Elizabeth R. Thomas3Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3ET, UKBritish Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB2 3ET, UKBritish Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB2 3ET, UKBritish Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB2 3ET, UKHere we present a case study for using visual stratigraphy to date a shallow firn core from coastal West Antarctica. The Mount Siple ice core has the potential to reconstruct climate in this data-sparse region over recent decades. Line scanned images of the 24 m firn core were used to generate a grey-scale, which displays variability consistent with annual cycles. The resulting Mount Siple age scale spans from 1998 ± 1 to 2017 CE. This study demonstrates that the seasonal changes in the grey-scale record provide an independent method of dating firn cores. However, the presence of melt layers at this site has introduced an error of ±1 year. Visual line stratigraphy has the unique advantage over traditional annual layer counting, based on chemical or isotopic species, of being non-destructive and relatively inexpensive. Visual line stratigraphy has proved to be an effective dating method for this site.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/13/3/85Sub-AntarcticIce CoresMeltingVisual Stratigraphy |
| spellingShingle | Joseph W. Brown Dorothea E. Moser Daniel B. Emanuelsson Elizabeth R. Thomas Visual Stratigraphy-Based Age Scale Developed for the Shallow Mount Siple Firn Core, Antarctica Geosciences Sub-Antarctic Ice Cores Melting Visual Stratigraphy |
| title | Visual Stratigraphy-Based Age Scale Developed for the Shallow Mount Siple Firn Core, Antarctica |
| title_full | Visual Stratigraphy-Based Age Scale Developed for the Shallow Mount Siple Firn Core, Antarctica |
| title_fullStr | Visual Stratigraphy-Based Age Scale Developed for the Shallow Mount Siple Firn Core, Antarctica |
| title_full_unstemmed | Visual Stratigraphy-Based Age Scale Developed for the Shallow Mount Siple Firn Core, Antarctica |
| title_short | Visual Stratigraphy-Based Age Scale Developed for the Shallow Mount Siple Firn Core, Antarctica |
| title_sort | visual stratigraphy based age scale developed for the shallow mount siple firn core antarctica |
| topic | Sub-Antarctic Ice Cores Melting Visual Stratigraphy |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/13/3/85 |
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