Lake Fryxell Sediment Core Data

Physical and chemical properties of sediment cores from Lake Fryxell, Antarctica, provide a means of reconstructing past paleoenvironmental, water-level, and water-source changes over the last 60,000 years. This dataset includes stable isotope (O, C), radiocarbon, U-series, sedimentological, and loss-on-ignition data. The oxygen data relate primarily to water-source changes in the lake basin. Carbon (both stable and radioactive) isotopes are influenced heavily by lake stratification and depth of the photic zone. The data record surface level changes of Lake Fryxell over the past 60,000 years. In addition, the dated sediments constrain the Ross Sea ice sheet to east of (seaward of) the lake through that entire time. Finally, stable oxygen isotopes document water source changes switching from local alpine glacier meltwater to Ross Sea ice sheet meltwater and then back to local glacier meltwater.