SUMMERTIME FORMATION of DEPTH HOAR in CENTRAL GREENLAND R.B.Alley1, E.S
GEOPHYSICALRESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 17, NO. 12, PAGES2393-2396, DECEMBER 1990 SUMMERTIME FORMATION OF DEPTH HOAR IN CENTRAL GREENLAND R.B.Alley1, E.S. Saltzman 2, K.M. Cuffey !, J.J. Fitzpatrick 3 .Abstract.Summertime solar heating of near-surface from snoworiginally of higherdensity). Depositional snowin centralGreenland causes mass loss and grain depthhoars can form at anytime of theyear, but exhibit growth. These depth hoar layersbecome seasonal certaincharacteristics (general thinness, tendency to fill markerswhich are observedin ice coresand snow pits. lowspots in theunderlying snow surface) that allow them Massredistribution associated with depth-hoarformation to be distinguishedfrom dingeneticdepth hoars [Alley, canchange concentrations of immobilechemicals by as !988]. muchas a factor of two in the depth hoar, altering Benson [1962] observed that in Greenland a atmospheric signals prior to archival in ice. For stratigraphicdiscontinuity forms in late summer or methanesulfonicacid (MSA) thiseffect is notsignificant autumn,with a coarse-grained,low-density layer often because the summer maximum does not coincide with the containingdepth hoar overlainby a finer, denserlayer. densityminimum, and the amplitude of the annual Traditionally, formation of the depth hoar in sucha (MSA)signal is more than a factorof ten. sequenceon ice sheetshas been linked to diagenesis duringthe autumnin the seasonaltemperature cycle, Introduction when summer-warmedsnow loses vapor to colder overlyingair, by diffusion,convection, and wind pumping Ice cores contain a paleoenvironmentalrecord of [e.g.Bader, 1939;Benson, 1962; Gow, 1968;although many atmospheric chemicals with seasonal time summertime formation of depth hoar has been resolution.Seasonal variations in the physicalproperties recognized,e.g. Benson, 1962]. of snowand ice provide layeringwhich can be usedto Co!beck[1989b] modeledthe effectsof annual and time changesin chemical inputs.
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