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(Sub-)Antarctic Ice Core from Young Island, Northwest Ross Sea

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(Sub-)Antarctic Ice Core from Young Island, Northwest Ross Sea geosciences Article An Age Scale for the First Shallow (Sub-)Antarctic Ice Core from Young Island, Northwest Ross Sea Dorothea Elisabeth Moser 1,2,* , Sarah Jackson 3, Helle Astrid Kjær 4, Bradley Markle 5, Estelle Ngoumtsa 4, Joel B. Pedro 6,7, Delia Segato 8,9 , Andrea Spolaor 8,9, Dieter Tetzner 1,2, Paul Vallelonga 4 and Elizabeth R. Thomas 1 1 Ice Dynamics and Paleoclimate, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK; [email protected] (D.T.); [email protected] (E.R.T.) 2 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK 3 Research School of Earth Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; [email protected] 4 Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth (PICE), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark; [email protected] (H.A.K.); [email protected] (E.N.); [email protected] (P.V.) 5 Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0399, USA; [email protected] 6 Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, TAS 7050, Australia; [email protected] 7 Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7004, Australia 8 Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 30170 Mestre, Italy; [email protected] (D.S.); [email protected] (A.S.) 9 Citation: Moser, D.E.; Jackson, S.; CNR-Institute of Polar Sciences (ISP-CNR), 30170 Mestre, Italy Kjær, H.A.; Markle, B.; Ngoumtsa, E.; * Correspondence: [email protected] Pedro, J.B.; Segato, D.; Spolaor, A.; Tetzner, D.; Vallelonga, P.; et al. An Abstract: The climate of the sub-Antarctic is important in understanding the environmental con- Age Scale for the First Shallow ditions of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. However, regional climate proxy records from this (Sub-)Antarctic Ice Core from Young region are scarce. In this study, we present the stable water isotopes, major ion chemistry, and Island, Northwest Ross Sea. dust records from the first ice core from the (sub-)Antarctic Young Island. We present and discuss Geosciences 2021, 11, 368. https:// various dating approaches based on commonly used ice core proxies, such as stable water isotopes doi.org/10.3390/geosciences11090368 and seasonally deposited ions, together with site-specific characteristics such as melt layers. The dating approaches are compared with estimated precipitation rates from reanalysis data (ERA5) and Academic Editors: Juan Pablo Corella volcanic cryptotephra shards likely presenting an absolute tie point from a 2001 CE eruption on and Jesus Martinez-Frias neighboring Sturge Island. The resulting ice core age scale spans the period 2016 to 1995, with an uncertainty of ±2 years. Received: 7 July 2021 Accepted: 25 August 2021 Published: 1 September 2021 Keywords: age scale; (sub-)Antarctic island; shallow ice core; proxies; melting Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- 1. Introduction iations. The sub-Antarctic atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns play a key role in setting the climate conditions of the Antarctic. They are particularly important to the stability of Antarctica’s outlet glaciers, and for this reason, sub-Antarctic sites are increas- ingly in the spotlight of glaciological research, e.g., [1–4]. However, field-based records Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. of environmental changes in the region are sparse [5], particularly before the satellite era Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. (since 1979). With the sub-Antarctic highly sensitive to shifts in circulation and potentially This article is an open access article in danger of losing the glaciers on its islands as climate archives, there is urgent need to distributed under the terms and investigate the geochemical proxies preserved in local ice cores to evaluate their potential conditions of the Creative Commons for climate reconstruction, e.g., of position and strength of westerly winds and regional Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// sea ice extent [2,6]. These parameters will help to understand the drivers and anticipate creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ changes in the Antarctic climate at large. 4.0/). Geosciences 2021, 11, 368. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences11090368 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/geosciences Geosciences 2021, 11, 368 2 of 18 Geosciences 2021, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 19 ToTo assess assess the the sites’ sites’potential potential forfor longerlonger paleoclimatepaleoclimate records,records, fivefive shallowshallow iceice corescores werewere retrieved retrieved from from Antarctic Antarctic and and sub-Antarcticsub-Antarctic sitessites duringduring thethe Sub-AntarcticSub-Antarctic Ice-CoringIce-Coring ExpeditionExpedition 2016–2017 2016–2017 (SubICE(SubICE [[2]2]).). InIn thisthis study,study, wewe presentpresent thethe firstfirst glacio-chemicalglacio-chemical andand microparticlemicroparticle records records of of a a 17 17 m m ice ice core core from from Young Young Island. Island. YoungYoung Island Island (Figure (Figure1 )1) is is located located ~240 ~240 km km northwest northwest ofof CapeCape Adare,Adare, VictoriaVictoria Land,Land, inin the the Somov Somov Sea, Sea, and and representsrepresents thethe northernmostnorthernmost subaerialsubaerial partpart ofof thethe volcanicvolcanic BallenyBalleny IslandIsland ridgeridge [[7]7].. It It extends extends 30 30 km km N N–S–S and and 6 6km km W W–E–E [8] [8 and] and is isentirely entirely glaciated glaciated [9]. [ 9In]. Inthis this area area NW NW of the of theRoss Ross Sea, Sea,pack pack ice develops ice develops regularly regularly [7,10],[ and7,10 ],a polynya and a polynya is known is knownto reoccur to reoccurannually, annually, especially especially during austral during spring austral and spring summer and [11 summer–13]. Its position [11–13]. and Its positionextent appear and extent to vary appear according to vary to according short-term to atmospheric short-term atmospheric circulation with circulation a tendency with of a tendencythe polynya of the opening polynya up opening leeward, up east leeward, of the eastBalleny of the Islands Balleny (Supplementary Islands (Supplementary Material). Material).Young Island Young is a Islandvaluable is aice valuable core site, ice as coreit lies site, in an as otherwise it lies inan data otherwise-sparse region. data-sparse How- region. However, accessing the site which is positioned in the so-called stormy sixties and ever, accessing the site which is positioned in the so-called stormy sixties and bound by bound by steep cliffs is very challenging. This ice core is further unique due to its position in steep cliffs is very challenging. This ice core is further unique due to its position in the the seasonal sea ice zone at the interface of circumpolar Westerlies and Antarctic Easterlies seasonal sea ice zone at the interface of circumpolar Westerlies and Antarctic Easterlies and could hold novel information about their interplay in the NW Ross Sea region. and could hold novel information about their interplay in the NW Ross Sea region. Figure 1. Map of (a) the Antarctic including the Balleny Island study area, the September (light blue) Figure 1. Map of (a) the Antarctic including the Balleny Island study area, the September (light blue) and February (dark blue shading) sea ice extent for the long-term median period 1981–2010 and February (dark blue shading) sea ice extent for the long-term median period 1981–2010 (NSIDC); (NSIDC); Subantarctic Front (SAF, outermost anthracite dashed line), Antarctic Polar Front (APF, Subantarcticmiddle light- Frontgrey dash (SAF,ed outermost line), and Southern anthracite Antarctic dashed Circumpolar line), Antarctic Current Polar Front Front (SACCF, (APF, middle inner- light-greymost grey- dasheddashed line),line) given; and Southern (b) detailed Antarctic map of Young Circumpolar Island with Current red and Front blue (SACCF, marker innermostindicating grey-dashedice core drilling line) and given; automatic (b) detailed weather map station of Young (AWS) Island sites, with respectively. red and blue marker indicating ice core drilling and automatic weather station (AWS) sites, respectively. To use the Young Island ice core data for climate reconstructions, we must first define a chronology.To use the YoungA preliminary Island ice estimate core data based for climateon a Herron reconstructions,–Langway wedensification must first definemodel adriven chronology. by the Aannual preliminary average estimate precipitation based from on a ERA5 Herron–Langway reanalysis for densification this site suggests model a drivenbottom by age the of annual 2002 ± average4 years [2] precipitation. However, fromYoung ERA5 Island reanalysis is too small for thisto be site considered suggests aa bottom age of 2002 ± 4 years [2]. However, Young Island is too small to be considered Geosciences 2021, 11, 368 3 of 18 a land grid point in ERA5 and thus the precipitation bears significant uncertainty. This approach also fails to consider the impact of wind scouring or post-depositional changes. Thus, a more robust dating approach is needed to establish the time span of this ice core and ascertain if annual average climate information can be extracted. Ice core chronologies from high-accumulation sites can be developed using annual layer counting in stable water isotope and geochemistry records [14,15]. Based on their sensitivity to temperature, stable
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