Misplaced Pages

#835164

103-499: The Siple Dome ice core project (79.468° S 112.086° W) was conducted by the United States National Science Foundation . The deepest ice was recovered in 1999 from 974 m, with an age of 97,600 years. It is best known for the poorly-explained steps in water isotopes during the deglacial, which are unique to this core and may indicate a rapid decrease in the surface elevation of the adjoining ice streams during

206-498: A m p l e ( 18 O 16 O ) S M O W − 1 ) × 1000   o / o o , {\displaystyle \mathrm {\delta ^{18}O} ={\Biggl (}\mathrm {\frac {{\bigl (}{\frac {^{18}O}{^{16}O}}{\bigr )}_{sample}}{{\bigl (}{\frac {^{18}O}{^{16}O}}{\bigr )}_{SMOW}}} -1{\Biggr )}\times 1000\ ^{o}\!/\!_{oo},} where

309-405: A clathrate . The bubbles disappear and the ice becomes more transparent. Two or three feet of snow may turn into less than a foot of ice. The weight above makes deeper layers of ice thin and flow outwards. Ice is lost at the edges of the glacier to icebergs , or to summer melting, and the overall shape of the glacier does not change much with time. The outward flow can distort the layers, so it

412-498: A plaque to commemorate the opening of the station in 1957, has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 11) following a proposal by Russia to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting . Professor Kudryashov's Drilling Complex Building : The drilling complex building stands close to Vostok Station at an elevation of 3,488 metres (11,444 ft). It was built in the summer season of 1983–1984. Under

515-434: A core and determine the age of each layer. As the depth increases to the point where the ice structure changes to a clathrate, the bubbles are no longer visible, and the layers can no longer be seen. Dust layers may now become visible. Ice from Greenland cores contains dust carried by wind; the dust appears most strongly in late winter, and appears as cloudy grey layers. These layers are stronger and easier to see at times in

618-569: A depth of 2,755 m; after a brief closure, drilling continued during the winter of 1995. In 1996 it was stopped at depth 3,623 m, by the request of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research that expressed worries about possible contamination of Lake Vostok . This ice core , drilled collaboratively with the French, produced a record of past environmental conditions stretching back 420,000 years and covering four previous glacial periods. For

721-459: A given core, but in 1979 Merlivat and Jouzel showed that the deuterium excess reflects the temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed of the ocean where the moisture originated. Since then it has been customary to measure both. Water isotope records, analyzed in cores from Camp Century and Dye 3 in Greenland, were instrumental in the discovery of Dansgaard-Oeschger events —rapid warming at

824-675: A given species: for example, Ca comes from dust as well as from marine sources; the marine input is much greater than the dust input and so although the two sources peak at different times of the year, the overall signal shows a peak in the winter, when the marine input is at a maximum. Seasonal signals can be erased at sites where the accumulation is low, by surface winds; in these cases it is not possible to date individual layers of ice between two reference layers. Vostok Station Vostok Station ( Russian : ста́нция Восто́к , romanized :  stántsiya Vostók , pronounced [ˈstant͡sɨjə vɐˈstok] , meaning "Station East")

927-427: A glacier, called basal ice, is frequently formed of subglacial meltwater that has refrozen. It can be up to about 20 m thick, and though it has scientific value (for example, it may contain subglacial microbial populations), it often does not retain stratigraphic information. Cores are often drilled in areas such as Antarctica and central Greenland where the temperature is almost never warm enough to cause melting, but

1030-411: A key element in providing dates for palaeoclimatic records. According to Richard Alley , "In many ways, ice cores are the 'rosetta stones' that allow development of a global network of accurately dated paleoclimatic records using the best ages determined anywhere on the planet". Cores show visible layers, which correspond to annual snowfall at the core site. If a pair of pits is dug in fresh snow with

1133-463: A long time it was the only core to cover several glacial cycles; but in 2004 it was exceeded by the EPICA core, which, whilst shallower, covers a longer time span. In 2003 drilling was permitted to continue, but was halted at the estimated distance to the lake of only 130 m. The ancient lake was finally breached on 5 February 2012 when scientists stopped drilling at the depth of 3,770 metres and reached

SECTION 10

#1732876903836

1236-406: A particular depth. Another method is to correlate radionuclides or trace atmospheric gases with other timescales such as periodicities in the earth's orbital parameters . A difficulty in ice core dating is that gases can diffuse through firn, so the ice at a given depth may be substantially older than the gases trapped in it. As a result, there are two chronologies for a given ice core: one for

1339-408: A pilot hole, which is then reamed (expanded) until it is wide enough to accept the casing; a large diameter auger can also be used, avoiding the need for reaming. An alternative to casing is to use water in the borehole to saturate the porous snow and firn; the water eventually turns to ice. Ice cores from different depths are not all equally in demand by scientific investigators, which can lead to

1442-478: A prepared surface. The core must be cleaned of drilling fluid as it is slid out; for the WAIS Divide coring project, a vacuuming system was set up to facilitate this. The surface that receives the core should be aligned as accurately as possible with the drill barrel to minimise mechanical stress on the core, which can easily break. The ambient temperature is kept well below freezing to avoid thermal shock. A log

1545-408: A reliable correlation between CO 2 levels and the temperature calculated from ice isotope data. Because CH 4 (methane) is produced in lakes and wetlands , the amount in the atmosphere is correlated with the strength of monsoons , which are in turn correlated with the strength of low-latitude summer insolation . Since insolation depends on orbital cycles , for which a timescale

1648-678: A sequence of collaborative projects began in the 1970s with the Greenland Ice Sheet Project ; there have been multiple follow-up projects, with the most recent, the East Greenland Ice-Core Project , originally expected to complete a deep core in east Greenland in 2020 but since postponed. An ice core is a vertical column through a glacier, sampling the layers that formed through an annual cycle of snowfall and melt. As snow accumulates, each layer presses on lower layers, making them denser until they turn into firn . Firn

1751-407: A shortage of ice cores at certain depths. To address this, work has been done on technology to drill replicate cores: additional cores, retrieved by drilling into the sidewall of the borehole, at depths of particular interest. Replicate cores were successfully retrieved at WAIS divide in the 2012–2013 drilling season, at four different depths. The logistics of any coring project are complex because

1854-430: A snow pit corresponds to a single year's snowfall. In central Greenland a typical year might produce two or three feet of winter snow, plus a few inches of summer snow. When this turns to ice, the two layers will make up no more than a foot of ice. The layers corresponding to the summer snow will contain bigger bubbles than the winter layers, so the alternating layers remain visible, which makes it possible to count down

1957-445: A temperature of −91 °C (−132 °F) on 28 July 1997. The warmest recorded temperature at Vostok is −14.0 °C (6.8 °F), which occurred on 5 January 1974. The coldest month was August 1987 with a mean temperature of −75.4 °C (−103.7 °F) and the warmest month was December 1989 with a mean temperature of −28 °C (−18 °F). In addition to the extremely cold temperatures, other factors make Vostok one of

2060-411: A thin wall between them and one of the pits is roofed over, an observer in the roofed pit will see the layers revealed by sunlight shining through. A six-foot pit may show anything from less than a year of snow to several years of snow, depending on the location. Poles left in the snow from year to year show the amount of accumulated snow each year, and this can be used to verify that the visible layer in

2163-725: Is ice cap ( Köppen : ET ), as is most of the continent. Without marine moderation and a few hundred meters above sea level, it has one of the harshest winters on the continent outside the Antarctic plateaus . Unlike Alert , NU at slightly higher latitude and positive high averages during summer, in Siple Dome temperatures remain below freezing during the afternoon of the warmer months on average. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from "Siple Dome" . Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Ice core An ice core

SECTION 20

#1732876903836

2266-473: Is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier . Since the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper ones, and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years. Cores are drilled with hand augers (for shallow holes) or powered drills; they can reach depths of over two miles (3.2 km), and contain ice up to 800,000 years old. The physical properties of

2369-453: Is a Russian research station in inland Princess Elizabeth Land , Antarctica . Founded by the Soviet Union in 1957, the station lies at the southern Pole of Cold , with the lowest reliably measured natural temperature on Earth of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K). Research includes ice core drilling and magnetometry . Vostok (Russian for 'east') was named after Vostok ,

2472-540: Is another indicator of temperature in the past. These data can be combined to find the climate model that best fits all the available data. Impurities in ice cores may depend on location. Coastal areas are more likely to include material of marine origin, such as sea salt ions . Greenland ice cores contain layers of wind-blown dust that correlate with cold, dry periods in the past, when cold deserts were scoured by wind. Radioactive elements, either of natural origin or created by nuclear testing , can be used to date

2575-463: Is available from other sources, CH 4 can be used to determine the relationship between core depth and age. N 2 O (nitrous oxide) levels are also correlated with glacial cycles, though at low temperatures the graph differs somewhat from the CO 2 and CH 4 graphs. Similarly, the ratio between N 2 (nitrogen) and O 2 (oxygen) can be used to date ice cores: as air

2678-427: Is desirable to drill deep ice cores at places where there is very little flow. These can be located using maps of the flow lines. Impurities in the ice provide information on the environment from when they were deposited. These include soot, ash, and other types of particle from forest fires and volcanoes ; isotopes such as beryllium-10 created by cosmic rays ; micrometeorites ; and pollen . The lowest layer of

2781-400: Is essentially a cylinder with helical metal ribs (known as flights) wrapped around the outside, at the lower end of which are cutting blades. Hand augers can be rotated by a T handle or a brace handle , and some can be attached to handheld electric drills to power the rotation. With the aid of a tripod for lowering and raising the auger, cores up to 50 m deep can be retrieved, but

2884-450: Is gradually trapped by the snow turning to firn and then ice, O 2 is lost more easily than N 2 , and the relative amount of O 2 correlates with the strength of local summer insolation. This means that the trapped air retains, in the ratio of O 2 to N 2 , a record of the summer insolation, and hence combining this data with orbital cycle data establishes an ice core dating scheme. Diffusion within

2987-502: Is kept with information about the core, including its length and the depth it was retrieved from, and the core may be marked to show its orientation. It is usually cut into shorter sections, the standard length in the US being one metre. The cores are then stored on site, usually in a space below snow level to simplify temperature maintenance, though additional refrigeration can be used. If more drilling fluid must be removed, air may be blown over

3090-525: Is located near the southern pole of inaccessibility and the south geomagnetic pole , making it one of the optimal places to observe changes in the Earth's magnetosphere . Other studies include actinometry , geophysics , medicine and climatology . The station is at 3,488 metres (11,444 ft) above sea level and is one of the most isolated established research stations on the Antarctic continent. The station

3193-409: Is not dense enough to prevent air from escaping; but at a density of about 830 kg/m it turns to ice, and the air within is sealed into bubbles that capture the composition of the atmosphere at the time the ice formed. The depth at which this occurs varies with location, but in Greenland and the Antarctic it ranges from 64 m to 115 m. Because the rate of snowfall varies from site to site,

Siple Dome - Misplaced Pages Continue

3296-580: Is only possible down to an age of 55,000 years. When there is summer melting, the melted snow refreezes lower in the snow and firn, and the resulting layer of ice has very few bubbles so is easy to recognise in a visual examination of a core. Identification of these layers, both visually and by measuring density of the core against depth, allows the calculation of a melt-feature percentage (MF): an MF of 100% would mean that every year's deposit of snow showed evidence of melting. MF calculations are averaged over multiple sites or long time periods in order to smooth

3399-497: Is produced in the atmosphere by marine organisms, so ice core records of MSA provide information on the history of the oceanic environment. Both hydrogen peroxide ( H 2 O 2 ) and formaldehyde ( HCHO ) have been studied, along with organic molecules such as carbon black that are linked to vegetation emissions and forest fires. Some species, such as calcium and ammonium , show strong seasonal variation. In some cases there are contributions from more than one source to

3502-452: Is slightly more likely to condense from vapour into rain or snow crystals. At lower temperatures, the difference is more pronounced. The standard method of recording the O / O ratio is to subtract the ratio in a standard known as standard mean ocean water (SMOW): δ 18 O = ( ( 18 O 16 O ) s

3605-429: Is the coldest-known location on Earth. The now inactive Plateau Station , located on the central Antarctic plateau, is believed to have recorded an average yearly temperature that was consistently lower than that of Vostok Station during the 37-month period that it was active in the late 1960s, and satellite readings have routinely detected colder temperatures in areas between Dome A and Dome F. The most recent record set

3708-414: Is the main method of drilling for minerals and it has also been used for ice drilling. It uses a string of drill pipe rotated from the top, and drilling fluid is pumped down through the pipe and back up around it. The cuttings are removed from the fluid at the top of the hole and the fluid is then pumped back down. This approach requires long trip times, since the entire drill string must be hoisted out of

3811-450: The N / N ratio and of neon , krypton and xenon , have been used to infer the thickness of the firn layer, and determine other palaeoclimatic information such as past mean ocean temperatures. Some gases such as helium can rapidly diffuse through ice, so it may be necessary to test for these "fugitive gases" within minutes of the core being retrieved to obtain accurate data. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which contribute to

3914-424: The greenhouse effect and also cause ozone loss in the stratosphere , can be detected in ice cores after about 1950; almost all CFCs in the atmosphere were created by human activity. Greenland cores, during times of climatic transition, may show excess CO 2 in air bubbles when analysed, due to CO 2 production by acidic and alkaline impurities. Summer snow in Greenland contains some sea salt, blown from

4017-436: The 1970s, the Soviet Union drilled a set of cores 500–952 metres (1,640–3,123 ft) deep. These have been used to study the oxygen isotope composition of the ice, which showed that ice of the last glacial period was present below about 400 metres' depth. Then three more holes were drilled: in 1984, Hole 3G reached a final depth of 2,202 m; in 1990, Hole 4G reached a final depth of 2,546 m; and in 1993 Hole 5G reached

4120-486: The ability of the technique to precisely assign an age to core depths. Timescales for ice cores from the same hemisphere can usually be synchronised using layers that include material from volcanic events. It is more difficult to connect the timescales in different hemispheres. The Laschamp event , a geomagnetic reversal about 40,000 years ago, can be identified in cores; away from that point, measurements of gases such as CH 4 ( methane ) can be used to connect

4223-471: The age of the firn when it turns to ice varies a great deal. At Summit Camp in Greenland, the depth is 77 m and the ice is 230 years old; at Dome C in Antarctica the depth is 95 m and the age 2500 years. As further layers build up, the pressure increases, and at about 1500 m the crystal structure of the ice changes from hexagonal to cubic, allowing air molecules to move into the cubic crystals and form

Siple Dome - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-412: The borehole. The core barrel is hoisted to the surface, and the core removed; the barrel is lowered again and reconnected to the drill assembly. Another alternative is flexible drill-stem rigs, in which the drill string is flexible enough to be coiled when at the surface. This eliminates the need to disconnect and reconnect the pipes during a trip. The need for a string of drillpipe that extends from

4429-421: The bubbles trapped in ice provide an indication of crystal size at the time they formed. The size of a crystal is related to its growth rate, which in turn depends on the temperature, so the properties of the bubbles can be combined with information on accumulation rates and firn density to calculate the temperature when the firn formed. Radiocarbon dating can be used on the carbon in trapped CO 2 . In

4532-615: The challenges faced by those living on the station were described in Vladimir Sanin 's books such as Newbie in the Antarctic (1973), 72 Degrees Below Zero (1975) and others. Vostok Station was established on 16 December 1957 (during the International Geophysical Year ) by the 2nd Soviet Antarctic Expedition and was operated year-round for more than 72 years. The station was temporarily closed from January 1962 to January 1963, from February to November 1994, and during

4635-426: The chronology of a Greenland core (for example) with an Antarctic core. In cases where volcanic tephra is interspersed with ice, it can be dated using argon/argon dating and hence provide fixed points for dating the ice. Uranium decay has also been used to date ice cores. Another approach is to use Bayesian probability techniques to find the optimal combination of multiple independent records. This approach

4738-404: The core. The drilling fluid is usually circulated down around the outside of the drill and back up between the core and core barrel; the cuttings are stored in the downhole assembly, in a chamber above the core. When the core is retrieved, the cuttings chamber is emptied for the next run. Some drills have been designed to retrieve a second annular core outside the central core, and in these drills

4841-438: The cores. Any samples needed for preliminary analysis are taken. The core is then bagged, often in polythene , and stored for shipment. Additional packing, including padding material, is added. When the cores are flown from the drilling site, the aircraft's flight deck is unheated to help maintain a low temperature; when they are transported by ship they must be kept in a refrigeration unit. There are several locations around

4944-651: The course of a drilling season, scores of people work at the camp, and logistics support includes airlift capabilities provided by the US Air National Guard , using Hercules transport planes owned by the National Science Foundation . In 2015 the EastGRIP team moved the camp facilities from NEEM , a previous Greenland ice core drilling site, to the EastGRIP site. Drilling is expected to continue until at least 2020. With some variation between projects,

5047-401: The cutting efficiency of the drill. They can be removed by compacting them into the walls of the hole or into the core, by air circulation (dry drilling), or by the use of a drilling fluid (wet drilling). Dry drilling is limited to about 400 m depth, since below that point a hole would close up as the ice deforms from the weight of the ice above. Drilling fluids are chosen to balance

5150-440: The data. Plots of MF data over time reveal variations in the climate, and have shown that since the late 20th century melting rates have been increasing. In addition to manual inspection and logging of features identified in a visual inspection, cores can be optically scanned so that a digital visual record is available. This requires the core to be cut lengthwise, so that a flat surface is created. The isotopic composition of

5253-509: The deglacial and a record of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The Chief Scientist was Kendrick Taylor . In the 1990s a team from the University of Washington and St Olaf College surveyed the ice, measuring thickness and determining internal structure, finding evidence for the operation of the Raymond Effect . They also found that the ice had a maximum thickness of around 1000 m. The climate

SECTION 50

#1732876903836

5356-520: The discovery was published in the Journal of Glaciology . Space-based radar revealed that the subglacial body of fresh water was one of the largest lakes in the world—and one of some 140 subglacial lakes in Antarctica. Russian and British scientists delineated the lake in 1996 by integrating a variety of data, including airborne ice-penetrating radar imaging observations and spaceborne radar altimetry . Lake Vostok lies some 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) below

5459-624: The driest places on Earth . On average, Vostok station receives 26 days of snow per year. It is also one of the sunniest places on Earth, despite having no sunshine at all between May and August; there are more hours of sunshine per year than even the sunniest places in South Africa , Australia and the Arabian Peninsula , where they approach those of the Sahara in Northern Africa . Vostok has

5562-428: The drill barrel to enclose the core before it is brought to the surface, but this makes it difficult to clean off the drilling fluid. In mineral drilling, special machinery can bring core samples to the surface at bottom-hole pressure, but this is too expensive for the inaccessible locations of most drilling sites. Keeping the processing facilities at very low temperatures limits thermal shocks. Cores are most brittle at

5665-610: The eruption of Toba about 72,000 years ago. Many other elements and molecules have been detected in ice cores. In 1969, it was discovered that lead levels in Greenland ice had increased by a factor of over 200 since pre-industrial times, and increases in other elements produced by industrial processes, such as copper , cadmium , and zinc , have also been recorded. The presence of nitric and sulfuric acid ( HNO 3 and H 2 SO 4 ) in precipitation can be shown to correlate with increasing fuel combustion over time. Methanesulfonate (MSA) ( CH 3 SO 3 )

5768-400: The firn layer causes other changes that can be measured. Gravity causes heavier molecules to be enriched at the bottom of a gas column, with the amount of enrichment depending on the difference in mass between the molecules. Colder temperatures cause heavier molecules to be more enriched at the bottom of a column. These fractionation processes in trapped air, determined by the measurement of

5871-405: The following steps must occur between drilling and final storage of the ice core. The drill removes an annulus of ice around the core but does not cut under it. A spring-loaded lever arm called a core dog can break off the core and hold it in place while it is brought to the surface. The core is then extracted from the drill barrel, usually by laying it out flat so that the core can slide out onto

5974-502: The highest sunshine total for any calendar month on Earth, at an average of 708.8 hours of sunshine in December, or 22.9 hours daily. It also has the lowest sunshine for any calendar month, with an absolute maximum of 0 hours of sunshine per month during polar night. Of official weather stations that are currently in operation, Vostok is the coldest on Earth in terms of mean annual temperature. However, it has been disputed that Vostok Station

6077-400: The hole, and each length of pipe must be separately disconnected, and then reconnected when the drill string is reinserted. Along with the logistical difficulties associated with bringing heavy equipment to ice sheets, this makes traditional rotary drills unattractive. In contrast, wireline drills allow the removal of the core barrel from the drill assembly while it is still at the bottom of

6180-422: The ice and of material trapped in it can be used to reconstruct the climate over the age range of the core. The proportions of different oxygen and hydrogen isotopes provide information about ancient temperatures , and the air trapped in tiny bubbles can be analysed to determine the level of atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide . Since heat flow in a large ice sheet is very slow, the borehole temperature

6283-719: The ice as little as possible; it must have low toxicity , for safety and to minimize the effect on the environment; it must be available at a reasonable cost; and it must be relatively easy to transport. Historically, there have been three main types of ice drilling fluids: two-component fluids based on kerosene -like products mixed with fluorocarbons to increase density; alcohol compounds, including aqueous ethylene glycol and ethanol solutions; and esters , including n-butyl acetate . Newer fluids have been proposed, including new ester-based fluids, low-molecular weight dimethyl siloxane oils, fatty-acid esters , and kerosene-based fluids mixed with foam-expansion agents. Rotary drilling

SECTION 60

#1732876903836

6386-409: The ice by cosmic rays, and the amount of correction depends strongly on the location of the ice core. Corrections for C produced by nuclear testing have much less impact on the results. Carbon in particulates can also be dated by separating and testing the water-insoluble organic components of dust. The very small quantities typically found require at least 300 g of ice to be used, limiting

6489-452: The ice can in turn give a date for the eruption, which can then be used as a reference layer. This was done, for example, in an analysis of the climate for the period from 535 to 550 AD, which was thought to be influenced by an otherwise unknown tropical eruption in about 533 AD; but which turned out to be caused by two eruptions, one in 535 or early 536 AD, and a second one in 539 or 540 AD. There are also more ancient reference points, such as

6592-491: The ice core record, it provides a cross-check on the age determined by layer counting. Material from Laki can be identified in Greenland ice cores, but did not spread as far as Antarctica; the 1815 eruption of Tambora in Indonesia injected material into the stratosphere, and can be identified in both Greenland and Antarctic ice cores. If the date of the eruption is not known, but it can be identified in multiple cores, then dating

6695-403: The ice, and one for the trapped gases. To determine the relationship between the two, models have been developed for the depth at which gases are trapped for a given location, but their predictions have not always proved reliable. At locations with very low snowfall, such as Vostok , the uncertainty in the difference between ages of ice and gas can be over 1,000 years. The density and size of

6798-410: The layers of ice. Some volcanic events that were sufficiently powerful to send material around the globe have left a signature in many different cores that can be used to synchronise their time scales. Ice cores have been studied since the early 20th century, and several cores were drilled as a result of the International Geophysical Year (1957–1958). Depths of over 400 m were reached, a record which

6901-624: The lead ship of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition captained by Fabian von Bellingshausen . The Bellingshausen Station was named after this captain (the second ship, Mirny , captained by Mikhail Lazarev , became the namesake for Mirny Station ). Vostok Research Station is around 1,301 kilometres (808 mi) from the Geographic South Pole , at the middle of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet . Vostok

7004-542: The leadership of Professor Boris Kudryashov, ancient ice core samples were obtained. The building has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 88), following a proposal by Russia to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. Vostok Station has an ice cap climate ( EF ), with subzero temperatures year round, typical as with much of Antarctica. Annual precipitation is only 22 millimetres (0.87 in) (all occurring as snow), making it one of

7107-571: The locations are usually difficult to reach, and may be at high altitude. The largest projects require years of planning and years to execute, and are usually run as international consortiums. The EastGRIP project, for example, which as of 2017 is drilling in eastern Greenland, is run by the Centre for Ice and Climate ( Niels Bohr Institute , University of Copenhagen ) in Denmark , and includes representatives from 12 countries on its steering committee. Over

7210-416: The mechanism. EM drills are also more likely to fracture ice cores where the ice is under high stress. When drilling deep holes, which require drilling fluid, the hole must be cased (fitted with a cylindrical lining), since otherwise the drilling fluid will be absorbed by the snow and firn. The casing has to reach down to the impermeable ice layers. To install casing a shallow auger can be used to create

7313-441: The most difficult places on Earth for human habitation: Acclimatization to such conditions can take from a week to two months and is accompanied by headaches , eye twitches, ear pains, nose bleeds, perceived suffocation, sudden rises in blood pressure , loss of sleep, reduced appetite , vomiting , joint and muscle pain, arthritis, and weight loss of 3–5 kg (7–11 lb) (sometimes as high as 12 kg (26 lb)). In

7416-411: The new station to no earlier than 2023. On January 28, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the ceremony of commissioning the station's wintering complex via video link. The ceremony was also attended by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Vostok Station Tractor : Heavy tractor AT-T 11, which participated in the first traverse to the south geomagnetic pole , along with

7519-412: The onset of an interglacial , followed by slower cooling. Other isotopic ratios have been studied, for example, the ratio between C and C can provide information about past changes in the carbon cycle . Combining this information with records of carbon dioxide levels, also obtained from ice cores, provides information about the mechanisms behind changes in CO 2 over time. It

7622-409: The oxygen in a core can be used to model the temperature history of the ice sheet. Oxygen has three stable isotopes, O , O and O . The ratio between O and O indicates the temperature when the snow fell. Because O is lighter than O , water containing O is slightly more likely to turn into vapour, and water containing O

7725-418: The past when the Earth's climate was cold, dry, and windy. Any method of counting layers eventually runs into difficulties as the flow of the ice causes the layers to become thinner and harder to see with increasing depth. The problem is more acute at locations where accumulation is high; low accumulation sites, such as central Antarctica, must be dated by other methods. For example, at Vostok, layer counting

7828-422: The polar ice sheets there is about 15–20 μg of carbon in the form of CO 2 in each kilogram of ice, and there may also be carbonate particles from wind-blown dust ( loess ). The CO 2 can be isolated by subliming the ice in a vacuum, keeping the temperature low enough to avoid the loess giving up any carbon. The results have to be corrected for the presence of C produced directly in

7931-408: The practical limit is about 30 m for engine-powered augers, and less for hand augers. Below this depth, electromechanical or thermal drills are used. The cutting apparatus of a drill is on the bottom end of a drill barrel, the tube that surrounds the core as the drill cuts downward. The cuttings (chips of ice cut away by the drill) must be drawn up the hole and disposed of or they will reduce

8034-437: The pressure so that the hole remains stable. The fluid must have a low kinematic viscosity to reduce tripping time (the time taken to pull the drilling equipment out of the hole and return it to the bottom of the hole). Since retrieval of each segment of core requires tripping, a slower speed of travel through the drilling fluid could add significant time to a project—a year or more for a deep hole. The fluid must contaminate

8137-422: The results of these tests to be useful in the reconstruction of palaeoenvironments , there has to be a way to determine the relationship between depth and age of the ice. The simplest approach is to count layers of ice that correspond to the original annual layers of snow, but this is not always possible. An alternative is to model the ice accumulation and flow to predict how long it takes a given snowfall to reach

8240-440: The retrieved ice core. Early thermal drills, designed for use without drilling fluid, were limited in depth as a result; later versions were modified to work in fluid-filled holes but this slowed down trip times, and these drills retained the problems of the earlier models. In addition, thermal drills are typically bulky and can be impractical to use in areas where there are logistical difficulties. More recent modifications include

8343-427: The same way as δ O . There is a linear relationship between δ O and δ D: δ D = 8 × δ 18 O + d , {\displaystyle \mathrm {\delta D} =8\times \mathrm {\delta ^{18}O} +\mathrm {d} ,} where d is the deuterium excess. It was once thought that this meant it was unnecessary to measure both ratios in

8446-487: The site, the presence of a liquid, freshwater lake below the ice did not instantly spring to mind. In 1991, Jeff Ridley, a remote-sensing specialist with the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London , directed a European satellite called ERS-1 to turn its high-frequency array toward the center of the Antarctic ice cap. It confirmed the 1974 discovery, but it was not until 1993 that

8549-412: The space between the two cores can be used for circulation. Cable-suspended drills have proved to be the most reliable design for deep ice drilling. Thermal drills, which cut ice by electrically heating the drill head, can also be used, but they have some disadvantages. Some have been designed for working in cold ice; they have high power consumption and the heat they produce can degrade the quality of

8652-488: The summer sunlight can still alter the snow. In polar areas, the Sun is visible day and night during the local summer and invisible all winter. It can make some snow sublimate , leaving the top inch or so less dense. When the Sun approaches its lowest point in the sky, the temperature drops and hoar frost forms on the top layer. Buried under the snow of following years, the coarse-grained hoar frost compresses into lighter layers than

8755-514: The surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet and covers an area of 14,000 square kilometres (5,400 sq mi). In 2019, the Russian government began construction on a new, modern station building to replace the aging facilities. Construction of the new facility was completed in Saint Petersburg to be transported to Vostok Station by ship, but continuing delays have pushed back completion of

8858-496: The surface of the ice core gives a measurement of the conductivity at that point. Dragging them down the length of the core, and recording the conductivity at each point, gives a graph that shows an annual periodicity. Such graphs also identify chemical changes caused by non-seasonal events such as forest fires and major volcanic eruptions. When a known volcanic event, such as the eruption of Laki in Iceland in 1783, can be identified in

8961-672: The surface of the subglacial lake. The brittle zone is approximately between 250 and 750 m and corresponds to the Last Glacial Maximum , with the end of the Holocene climatic optimum at or near the 250-metre depth. Although the Vostok core reached a depth of 3,623 m the usable climatic information does not extend down this far. The very bottom of the core is ice refrozen from the waters of Lake Vostok and contains no climate information. The usual data sources give proxy information down to

9064-403: The surface to the bottom of the borehole can be eliminated by suspending the entire downhole assembly on an armoured cable that conveys power to the downhole motor. These cable-suspended drills can be used for both shallow and deep holes; they require an anti-torque device, such as leaf-springs that press against the borehole, to prevent the drill assembly rotating around the drillhead as it cuts

9167-601: The surface, so another approach is to break them into 1 m lengths in the hole. Extruding the core from the drill barrel into a net helps keep it together if it shatters. Brittle cores are also often allowed to rest in storage at the drill site for some time, up to a full year between drilling seasons, to let the ice gradually relax. Many different kinds of analysis are performed on ice cores, including visual layer counting, tests for electrical conductivity and physical properties, and assays for inclusion of gases, particles, radionuclides , and various molecular species . For

9270-403: The surrounding waters; there is less of it in winter, when much of the sea surface is covered by pack ice. Similarly, hydrogen peroxide appears only in summer snow because its production in the atmosphere requires sunlight. These seasonal changes can be detected because they lead to changes in the electrical conductivity of the ice. Placing two electrodes with a high voltage between them on

9373-486: The temperatures deduced from the δ O data. Not all boreholes can be used in these analyses. If the site has experienced significant melting in the past, the borehole will no longer preserve an accurate temperature record. Hydrogen ratios can also be used to calculate a temperature history. Deuterium ( H , or D) is heavier than hydrogen ( H ) and makes water more likely to condense and less likely to evaporate. A δ D ratio can be defined in

9476-474: The tensile strength of the ice, resulting in cracks and spall . At greater depths, the air disappears into clathrates and the ice becomes stable again. At the WAIS Divide site, the brittle ice zone was from 520 m to 1340 m depth. The brittle ice zone typically returns poorer quality samples than for the rest of the core. Some steps can be taken to alleviate the problem. Liners can be placed inside

9579-622: The use of antifreeze , which eliminates the need for heating the drill assembly and hence reduces the power needs of the drill. Hot-water drills use jets of hot water at the drill head to melt the water around the core. The drawbacks are that it is difficult to accurately control the dimensions of the borehole, the core cannot easily be kept sterile, and the heat may cause thermal shock to the core. When drilling in temperate ice, thermal drills have an advantage over electromechanical (EM) drills: ice melted by pressure can refreeze on EM drill bits, reducing cutting efficiency, and can clog other parts of

9682-558: The winter of 2003. In 1959, the Vostok station was the scene of a fight between two scientists over a game of chess. When one of them lost the game, he became so enraged that he attacked the other with an ice axe . According to some sources, it was a murder, though other sources say that the attack was not fatal. Afterwards, chess games were banned at Soviet, and later Russian, Antarctic stations. In 1974, when British scientists in Antarctica performed an airborne ice-penetrating radar survey and detected strange radar readings at

9785-409: The winter snow. As a result, alternating bands of lighter and darker ice can be seen in an ice core. Ice cores are collected by cutting around a cylinder of ice in a way that enables it to be brought to the surface. Early cores were often collected with hand augers and they are still used for short holes. A design for ice core augers was patented in 1932 and they have changed little since. An auger

9888-479: The world that store ice cores, such as the National Ice Core Laboratory in the US. These locations make samples available for testing. A substantial fraction of each core is archived for future analyses. Over a depth range known as the brittle ice zone, bubbles of air are trapped in the ice under great pressure. When the core is brought to the surface, the bubbles can exert a stress that exceeds

9991-407: The ‰ sign indicates parts per thousand . A sample with the same O / O ratio as SMOW has a δ O of 0‰; a sample that is depleted in O has a negative δ O . Combining the δ O measurements of an ice core sample with the borehole temperature at the depth it came from provides additional information, in some cases leading to significant corrections to

10094-635: Was developed in 2010 and has since been turned into a software tool, DatIce. The boundary between the Pleistocene and the Holocene , about 11,700 years ago, is now formally defined with reference to data on Greenland ice cores. Formal definitions of stratigraphic boundaries allow scientists in different locations to correlate their findings. These often involve fossil records, which are not present in ice cores, but cores have extremely precise palaeoclimatic information that can be correlated with other climate proxies. The dating of ice sheets has proved to be

10197-683: Was extended in the 1960s to 2164 m at Byrd Station in Antarctica. Soviet ice drilling projects in Antarctica include decades of work at Vostok Station , with the deepest core reaching 3769 m. Numerous other deep cores in the Antarctic have been completed over the years, including the West Antarctic Ice Sheet project, and cores managed by the British Antarctic Survey and the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition . In Greenland,

10300-431: Was in Vostok on 21 July 1983 at 05:45 Moscow Time , which was 07:45 for Vostok's time zone, and 01:45 UTC (See List of weather records ). This beat the station's former record of −88.3 °C (−126.9 °F) on 24 August 1960. Lower temperatures occurred higher up towards the summit of the ice sheet as temperature decreases with height along the surface. Though unconfirmed, it has been reported that Vostok reached

10403-568: Was supplied from Mirny Station on the Antarctic coast. The station normally hosts 30 scientists and engineers in the summer. In winter, their number drops to 15. The only permanent research station located farther south is the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station , operated by the United States at the geographic South Pole . The Chinese Kunlun Station is farther south than Vostok but is occupied only during summers. Some of

10506-454: Was the October record low, set on 1 October 2021. Vostok is one of the coldest places on Earth . The average temperature of the cold season (from April to September) is about −66 °C (−87 °F), while the average temperature of the warm season (from October to March) is about −44 °C (−47 °F). The lowest reliably measured temperature on Earth of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F)

10609-420: Was understood in the 1960s that analyzing the air trapped in ice cores would provide useful information on the paleoatmosphere , but it was not until the late 1970s that a reliable extraction method was developed. Early results included a demonstration that the CO 2 concentration was 30% less at the last glacial maximum than just before the start of the industrial age. Further research has demonstrated

#835164