Direct Dating of Old Ice by Extraterrestrial Helium-3 and Atmospheric Beryllium-10 - A Proof of Concept

这笔用于探索性研究的小额赠款支持开发一种创新的测年技术，应用于埋藏在南极洲西部干燥山谷中的古老残存冰体。对周围沉积物和火山灰的测年表明，这些冰体的年龄可能长达600万年，提供了现有最古老的直接大气和气候记录。这个SGER是开发一种新的测年技术的概念证明，该技术使用来自大气层的宇宙源铍(10Be)和星际尘埃粒子中包含的地外氦(3He)。这两种示踪剂都沉积到地球表面，很可能以恒定的速度并入冰基质中。10Be相对于稳定的地外3He信号的放射性衰变可能会提供直接测量冰层年龄的方法。这项工作的更广泛影响是开发了一种新的分析技术，可能会从深层时间记录的角度提高社会对全球气候变化潜力的理解。

This Small Grant for Exploratory Research supports development of an innovative dating technique for application to ancient, relict ice bodies buried in the Western Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Dating of surrounding sediments and volcanic ashes indicates that these ice bodies may be up to six million years in age, offering the oldest direct atmospheric and climate records available. This SGER is a proof of concept to develop a new dating technique using beryllium (10Be) of cosmogenic origin from the atmosphere and extraterrestrial helium (3He) contained in interplanetary dust particles. Both tracers are deposited to the Earth's surface and likely incorporated into the ice matrix at constant rates. Radioactive decay of 10Be versus the stable extraterrestrial 3He signal may offer way to directly measure the age of the ice.The broader impacts of this work are development of a new analytical technique that may improve society's understanding of the potential for global climate change from the perspective of the deep time record.