Collaborative Research: Microparticle/tephra analysis of the WAIS Divide ice core

Visible tephra layers were found in the Byrd Station ice core, the first deep core drilled in Antarctica. Since then, tephra have been found in many other Antarctic ice cores. Tephra layers in ice cores range from sub-centimeter thick, visible layers to cryptotephra consisting of sparse, fine-grained (~10 micron) glass particles. Detection of tephra particles has improved with advances in methods of detecting cryptotephra in ice cores. Identification of tephra layers traditionally relied on physical properties or association with sulfate aerosols, but is now supplemented by downhole optical logging (Bay et al., 2001). Improved analytical techniques for glass characterization, such as high quality quantitative electron microprobe analysis, and more complete information on source eruptions has allowed development of a regional database of volcanic eruptions, which can be used to identify tephra horizons in ice cores. Two deep ice cores drilled in West Antarctica (Siple Dome and WAIS Divide) contain rich tephra records, with the former containing 37 tephra layers and the latter containing several hundred distinct, visible layers, many of which are likely to be tephra. Most of the tephra layers with strong correlations are derived from Antarctic volcanoes, many from two large West Antarctic stratovolcanoes Mt. Berlin and Mt. Takahe, tephra from which have also been recognized in the marine record (Hillenbrand et al., 1988). A well-defined ash layer was recognized at a depth of between 190.37-190.39 m depth in the WAIS Divide core, which contains 20 um ash shards, and was chemically characterized as being derived from the Pleaides volcanoes, located in northern Victoria Land. This tephra layer correlates to one found in a Siple Dome (B) ice core (97.2 to 97.7 m depth) and in the Taylor Dome ice core (79.2 m depth). Deeper parts of the WAIS Divide ice core represent a time interval of abundant regional volcanism. This activity is reflected in the large number of visible dust bands and cloudy layers that were observed in the core (A. Orsi, pers. comm., 2010). Although no chemical analyses have been made, a distinct “visible brown layer” at a depth of 1586.363 m. (8.279 Ky BP preliminary age) is very likely to be from a major eruption of the West Antarctic volcano Mt. Takahe. This eruption is dated at 8.2±5.4 using 40Ar/39Ar geochronology (Wilch et al., 1999) and is observed at a depth of between 503.58 and 503.87 m in the Siple Dome A core (SMDA) corresponding to ages between 8.167 and 8.181 Ky before 1950. A layer almost certainly corresponding to this one was identified and analyzed in the Byrd ice core at a depth of 788 m (Palais et al., 1988). A visible double layer at 1741.246 m (9.57 KyBP preliminary age) may correspond to a very distinct tephra layer in the SDMA core at a depth of around 550 m (corresponding to an age of around 9.7 Ky before 1950). This layer is derived from West Antarctic stratovolcano, Mt. Berlin. In the next segment of WAIS Divide ice core, between 2251 and 2557 m depth (15.2 to 20.6 preliminary age), numerous dust bands and cloudy layers are reported in the ice. This corresponds to the age of ice in the Byrd Core that contained many volcanic layers (Gow and Williamson, 1971), and also an interval in the SDMA where numerous distinct tephra layers associated with highly explosive eruptions of Mt. Berlin. Detailed quantitative chemical analyses will be required to make one-to-one correlations between tephra layers in the WAIS Divide and SDMA cores, but once made, will allow one additional tool to tie the records in these two cores together.