1. Aims of this Project

This study investigates the regional Holocene climate of the South Victoria Land coast, using the snow and ice of the Wilson Piedmont Glacier as an archive. Ice cores are being recovered and will be analysed to obtain a detailed, continuous record of past climate. The principal idea behind ice core analyses is, that as snow accumulates, it preserves information about climate, by trapping atmospheric gas, dust particles, and freezing the isotopic composition of water and air molecules. Analysis of these parameters can be used as proxies to quantify past temperature, precipitation, sea ice extent, wind direction, and storm frequency.

The purpose of this year's study was to test the quality of the paleoclimatic signal, recorded in the WPG and to establish transfer functions between meteorological data, satellite images and the ice core parameters. For this reason six shallow ice cores (varying from 7 to 33m) were recovered from Lower Victoria and Baldwin Glacier (Fig.:1). Due to their different characteristics in catchment, altitude, and topography, a comparison between the cores from the two areas will allow the effect of local influences to be separated from the regional climatic signal. To help interpret the ice core record, a mass balance measurement device has been installed, borehole temperature measured and snow profiles investigated and sampled. The area has been surveyed using differential GPS.

The results of this year's investigations are two-fold: firstly, they enable us to judge the quality of an ice record retrieved from that area and hence are the basis for the decision to drill a deeper 200m core during the coming season. Secondly, they will enable us to establish transfer functions for the deeper core, to calculate absolute values for paleoproxies, such as temperature, precipitation and sea ice extent, beyond the time covered by meteorological measurements and into the geological past.