Age ranges of the Tibetan ice cores with emphasis on the Chongce ice cores, western Kunlun Mountains
<p>An accurate chronology is the essential first step for a sound understanding of ice core records. However, dating ice cores drilled from the high-elevation glaciers is challenging and often problematic, leading to great uncertainties. The Guliya ice core, drilled to the bedrock (308.6&a...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2018-07-01
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Series: | The Cryosphere |
Online Access: | https://www.the-cryosphere.net/12/2341/2018/tc-12-2341-2018.pdf |
Summary: | <p>An accurate chronology is the essential first step for a sound understanding
of ice core records. However, dating ice cores drilled from the
high-elevation glaciers is challenging and often problematic, leading to
great uncertainties. The Guliya ice core, drilled
to the bedrock (308.6 m
in length) along the western Kunlun Mountains on the
north-western Tibetan Plateau (TP) and widely used as a benchmark for
palaeoclimate research, is believed to reach > 500 ka (thousand years) at
its bottom. Meanwhile other Tibetan ice cores (i.e. Dasuopu and East Rongbuk
in the Himalayas, Puruogangri in the central TP and Dunde in the
north-eastern TP) are mostly of Holocene origin. In this study, we drilled
four ice cores into bedrock (216.6, 208.6, 135.8 and 133.8 m in
length, respectively) from the Chongce ice cap ∼ 30 km
to the
Guliya ice core drilling site. We took measurements of <sup>14</sup>C,
<sup>210</sup>Pb, tritium and <i>β</i> activity for the ice cores, and used
these values in a two-parameter flow model to establish the ice core
depth–age relationship. We suggested that the Chongce ice cores might be of
Holocene origin, consistent with the other Tibetan ice cores except Guliya.
The remarkable discrepancy between the Guliya and all the other Tibetan ice
core chronology implies that more effort is necessary to explore multiple
dating techniques to confirm the age ranges of the TP glaciers, including
those from Chongce and Guliya.</p> |
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ISSN: | 1994-0416 1994-0424 |