Studies of Trapped Gases in Firn and Ice from Antarctic DeepIce Cores

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This award is for support of a project to study the concentration and isotopic composition of O2, N2, and Ar in ice core trapped gas samples, and to begin a program of CH4 measurements. The transport of air in the firn, and its implications for isotopic fractionation during the trapping of gases and the chronology of ice core trapped gas samples will be studied. Samples from the Vostok, Byrd Station, and McMurdo Dome ice cores will be studied. Results from this study will lead to a better understanding of the sequence of events associated with glaciations and deglaciations, estimates of time leads and lags between these events, and the implications of this information for mechanisms of Pleistocene climate change. This work will also contribute to efforts to understand how man has changed greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere during the last 200 years.