Description: Das Projekt "Radiocarbon dating of ice from a Kilimanjaro plateau glacier" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Paul Scherrer Institut, Labor für Radio- und Umweltchemie durchgeführt. High-alpine ice cores from mid- and low-latitude glaciers and ice caps provide regional climate signals in areas inhabited by the majority of the worlds population. Interpreting the information contained in natural climate archives requires a precise chronology. For high-alpine ice cores there is a lack of an appropriate dating tool for the lowermost section since strong ice flow induced layer thinning limits counting of annual layers in the best case to a couple of centuries and is not suitable for the oldest and deepest ice. Glacier flow is dominated by the small-scale geometry of bedrock, resulting in a strongly non-linear depth-age relationship over time, which cannot be fully resolved using physical ice flow models. Under these circumstances, radiocarbon analysis can provide an absolute date. Radiocarbon dating has been successfully applied to ice cores, when sufficient organic material such as wood fragments or insects was found. However, this has rarely been the case - a fact limiting the wider application of this technique. To overcome this problem, a recently developed approach is to use carbonaceous aerosols contained in the ice for radiocarbon dating. Carbonaceous particles are a major component of naturally occurring aerosols that are emitted ubiquitously or formed in the atmosphere and transported to potential ice core sites. Radiocarbon dating using the organic carbon fraction was applied by our group to different ice cores from Nevado Illimani (Andes, 6300 m asl), Colle Gnifetti (Alps, 4450 m asl), and Tsambagarav (Altai, 4140 m asl). For the first two ice cores the ages cover a time span from 1000 to more than 10000 years, whereas the latter has a basal ice age of approximately 6000 years. This novel radiocarbon approach is promising to help resolving the current debate about the age of the Kilimanjaro plateau glaciers. Palaeoclimate reconstructions based on six ice cores, assigned a basal age of 11700 years. Another study claims that plateau glaciers on Kilimanjaro are subject to recurring cycles of waxing and waning controlled primarily by atmospheric moisture. An absence of the ice bodies was reconstructed for the period around 850 years ago. This proposal seeks funding for a 1-year extension of the 3-years SNF project 'Radiocarbon dating of glacier ice' to finalize the PhD thesis of Alexander Zapf. The aim is the radiocarbon dating of 48 ice samples collected during our 2011 expedition to Kilimanjaro. A stratigraphic sequence of samples from the exposed vertical ice cliffs at the margins of the Northern Ice Field was obtained from horizons characterized by varying particle concentrations. The Kilimanjaro ice fields are subject to rapid areal shrinkage and thinning. (...)
Types:
SupportProgram
Origin: /Bund/UBA/UFORDAT
Tags: Naturwerkstoff ? Insekt ? Lack ? Organischer Kohlenstoff ? Eisbedeckung ? Skigebiet ? Umweltchemie ? Anden ? Geografische Koordinaten ? Aerosol ? Datierung ? Gletscher ? Ackerrandstreifen ? Projektförderung ? Alpen ? Bohrkern ? Mesoklima ? Standortwahl ? Strömungsmodell ? Studie ? Technik ? Verdünnung ? Luftfeuchtigkeit ? Hochgebirge ? Steilküste ? Lebensalter ? Ackerland ? Anwendungstechnik ? Weltbevölkerung ? Finanzierung ? Klima ? Partikel ? Fahrradfahren ? Probenahme ? Verkehr ? Abdeckung ? Arbeit ? Atmosphäre ? Glacier ice ? Tatbestand ? Verwertung ? Kilimanjaro ? Carbonaceous particles ? Fluss [Bewegung] ? Konzentrat ? Sequenzierung ? Werkzeug ? Radiocarbon ?
License: cc-by-nc-nd/4.0
Language: Deutsch
Time ranges: 2013-01-01 - 2014-06-30
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