Collaborative Research: Exploring A 2 Million + Year Ice Climate Archive-Allan Hills Blue Ice Area (2MBIA)

该奖项支持一个项目，该项目旨在生成艾伦山蓝冰区（BIA）的绝对时间尺度，然后重建过去特定时间段的气候变化和温室气体浓度的细节，可追溯到2.5 Ma。冰期将通过应用新兴的捕获气泡的绝对和相对定年方法来确定（基于Argon-40/Argon-38、O2的δ - 18o和O2/N2比值）。为了证明Allan Hills BIAs作为古气候档案的潜力，将收集对应于110-140 ka， 1 Ma和2.5 Ma的年龄间隔的海沟和冰芯。在拟议的两个野外季节，将把总共6 × 100米的岩心和额外的15米岩心与挖沟结合起来。这项活动的智力价值在于，这项工作的结果将扩展EPICA和其他深层冰芯工作的里程碑式工作，这些工作的记录可追溯到0.8 Ma，并将补充IPICS计划钻探持续至1.5 Ma的南极冰芯的工作。这些结果将有助于加深对发生在0-2.5 Ma之间的主要气候机制和转变的理解，包括40 kyr世界和中更新世气候转变。一个主要的长期科学目标是通过在Allan Hills BIA建立一个“国际气候公园”，为收集古气候记录提供一种变革的方法，任何感兴趣的美国或外国研究者都可以对大量已知年龄为2.5 Ma的冰进行采样。所提议的活动所产生的更广泛的影响包括训练学生精通结合地球化学、冰川学和古气候学的先进野外、实验室和数值模拟方法。我们将把与我们提议的研究相关的材料纳入我们正在进行的地方教育工作和我们对媒体的宣传工作中。缅因大学已经拥有网络基础设施，使用最先进的网络技术，可以为广大科学家提供快速访问我们研究成果的途径。这项工作将有助于广泛的气候变化研究，为全世界了解自然和人为造成的气候变化以及应对方案提供信息。这个奖项在南极洲进行实地考察。

Kurbatov/0838843 This award supports a project to generate an absolute timescale for the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area (BIA), and then to reconstruct details of past climate changes and greenhouse gas concentrations for certain time periods back to 2.5 Ma. Ice ages will be determined by applying emerging methods for absolute and relative dating of trapped air bubbles (based on Argon-40/Argon-38, delta-18O of O2, and the O2/N2 ratio). To demonstrate the potential of the Allan Hills BIAs as a paleoclimate archive trenches and ice cores will be collected for age intervals corresponding to 110-140 ka, 1 Ma, and 2.5 Ma. During the proposed two field seasons a total of 6x100 m and additional 15 m cores will be combined with trenching. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity is that the results of this work will extend the landmark work of EPICA and other deep ice coring efforts, which give records dating back to 0.8 Ma, and will complement work planned by IPICS to drill a continuous Antarctic ice core extending to 1.5 Ma. The results will help to advance understanding of major climate regimes and transitions that took place between 0-2.5 Ma, including the 40 kyr world and the mid-Pleistocene climate transition. A major long-term scientific goal is to provide a transformative approach to the collection of paleoclimate records by establishing an "International Climate Park" in the Allan Hills BIA that would enable sampling of large quantities of known age ice as old as 2.5 Ma, by any interested American or foreign investigator. The broader impacts resulting from the proposed activity include training students who are well versed in advanced field, laboratory and numerical modeling methods combining geochemistry, glaciology, and paleoclimatology. We will include material relevant to our proposed research in our ongoing efforts in local education and in our outreach efforts for media. The University of Maine already has cyberinfrastructure, using state of the art web-based technology, which can provide a wide community of scientists with fast access to the results of our research. The work will contribute to the broad array of climate change studies that is informing worldwide understanding of natural and anthropogenic forced climate change, and the options for responding. This award has field work in Antarctica.