Continuous and discrete measurements of atmospheric methane from an ice core from Roosevelt Island, East Ross Sea, Antarctica

Abstract:

A new ice core from Roosevelt Island was drilled for the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) project to establish the history of deglaciation of the Ross Sea.

Evidence of glacial retreat in the Ross Sea Embayment shows that deglaciation happened in several stages of rapid collapse and persisted well after the melting of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets was complete. The drill location on a small island surrounded by sea ice makes dating the core a challenge.

We present a timescale for Roosevelt Island using mixing ratios of methane in air preserved within the ice core measured continuously with a Picarro laser spectrometer as well as in high-resolution with gas chromatography (GC). Discrete data from GC analysis over the top 400m of core replicate both the magnitude and variations from other high-resolution ice core records from WAIS Divide, Law Dome, GISP2 and NEEM S1. Both the continuous and discrete methane records of the RICE core were matched to these established records and provide an accurate and consistent depth-age relationship for the past 3.6kyr.

The deeper part of the core was measured continuously in July 2014. First inspection of the data suggests that the oldest section of the core reaches into the previous interglacial (Eemian). We will present preliminary evaluated continuous methane data for the deeper part of the core together with a first time scale for the Roosevelt Island ice core.