The Contribution of Synchrotron Light for the Characterization of Atmospheric Mineral Dust in Deep Ice Cores: Preliminary Results from the Talos Dome Ice Core (East Antarctica)

Giovanni Baccolo,Salvatore Macis,Elena Di Stefano,Barbara Delmonte,Augusto Marcelli,Giannantonio Cibin,Dariush Hampai,Valter Maggi

doi:10.3390/condmat3030025

Abstract

The possibility of finding a stratigraphically intact ice sequence with a potential basal age exceeding one million years in Antarctica is giving renewed interest to deep ice coring operations. But the older and deeper the ice, the more impactful are the post-depositional processes that alter and modify the information entrapped within ice layers. Understanding in situ post-depositional processes occurring in the deeper part of ice cores is essential to comprehend how the climatic signals are preserved in deep ice, and consequently how to construct the paleoclimatic records. New techniques and new interpretative tools are required for these purposes. In this respect, the application of synchrotron light to microgram-sized atmospheric dust samples extracted from deep ice cores is extremely promising. We present here preliminary results on two sets of samples retrieved from the Talos Dome Antarctic ice core. A first set is composed by samples from the stratigraphically intact upper part of the core, the second by samples retrieved from the deeper part of the core that is still undated. Two techniques based on synchrotron light allowed us to characterize the dust samples, showing that mineral particles entrapped in the deepest ice layers display altered elemental composition and anomalies concerning iron geochemistry, besides being affected by inter-particle aggregation.

Highlights

Atmospheric mineral dust is a key component of the Earth climate system
We present preliminary results about the atmospheric mineral dust record from the deep part of the Talos Dome ice core (TALDICE)
The current work clearly shows the great potential of synchrotron light for the characterization of mineral dust extracted from ice core samples

Summary

Introduction

Atmospheric mineral dust is a key component of the Earth climate system. Dust affects climate, with direct and indirect effects related to the radiative properties of the atmosphere and of the surfaces where it is deposited, to cloud physics, and to biogeochemistry [1,2,3]. Paleoclimate archives were essential to reconstruct the past interactions between climate and the global dust cycle. EPICA Dome C is the Antarctic ice core that allowed for the longest and most detailed climatic reconstruction of the last 800,000 years [7,8], including an accurate record of dust deposition during the last eight climatic cycles [4]

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Conclusion