Articles | Volume 17, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3461-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3461-2023
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
24 Aug 2023
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 24 Aug 2023

Stagnant ice and age modelling in the Dome C region, Antarctica

Ailsa Chung, Frédéric Parrenin, Daniel Steinhage, Robert Mulvaney, Carlos Martín, Marie G. P. Cavitte, David A. Lilien, Veit Helm, Drew Taylor, Prasad Gogineni, Catherine Ritz, Massimo Frezzotti, Charles O'Neill, Heinrich Miller, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, and Olaf Eisen

Related authors

Review Article: Antarctica’s internal architecture: Towards a radiostratigraphically-informed age–depth model of the Antarctic ice sheets
Robert G. Bingham, Julien A. Bodart, Marie G. P. Cavitte, Ailsa Chung, Rebecca J. Sanderson, Johannes C. R. Sutter, Olaf Eisen, Nanna B. Karlsson, Joseph A. MacGregor, Neil Ross, Duncan A. Young, David W. Ashmore, Andreas Born, Winnie Chu, Xiangbin Cui, Reinhard Drews, Steven Franke, Vikram Goel, John W. Goodge, A. Clara J. Henry, Antoine Hermant, Benjamin H. Hills, Nicholas Holschuh, Michelle R. Koutnik, Gwendolyn J.-M. C. Leysinger Vieli, Emma J. Mackie, Elisa Mantelli, Carlos Martín, Felix S. L. Ng, Falk M. Oraschewski, Felipe Napoleoni, Frédéric Parrenin, Sergey V. Popov, Therese Rieckh, Rebecca Schlegel, Dustin M. Schroeder, Martin J. Siegert, Xueyuan Tang, Thomas O. Teisberg, Kate Winter, Shuai Yan, Harry Davis, Christine F. Dow, Tyler J. Fudge, Tom A. Jordan, Bernd Kulessa, Kenichi Matsuoka, Clara J. Nyqvist, Maryam Rahnemoonfar, Matthew R. Siegfried, Shivangini Singh, Verjan Višnjević, Rodrigo Zamora, and Alexandra Zuhr
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2593,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2593, 2024
Short summary
Age, thinning and spatial origin of the Beyond EPICA ice from a 2.5D ice flow model
Ailsa Chung, Frédéric Parrenin, Robert Mulvaney, Luca Vittuari, Massimo Frezzotti, Antonio Zanutta, David A. Lilien, Marie G. P. Cavitte, and Olaf Eisen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1650,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1650, 2024
Short summary
Mapping age and basal conditions of ice in the Dome Fuji region, Antarctica, by combining radar internal layer stratigraphy and flow modeling
Zhuo Wang, Ailsa Chung, Daniel Steinhage, Frédéric Parrenin, Johannes Freitag, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 17, 4297–4314, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4297-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4297-2023, 2023
Short summary

Related subject area

Discipline: Ice sheets | Subject: Ice Sheets
Probabilistic projections of the Amery Ice Shelf catchment, Antarctica, under high ice-shelf basal melt conditions
Sanket Jantre, Matthew J. Hoffman, Nathan M. Urban, Trevor Hillebrand, Mauro Perego, Stephen Price, and John D. Jakeman
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1677,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1677, 2024
Short summary
Reconstructing dynamics of the Baltic Ice Stream Complex during deglaciation of the Last Scandinavian Ice Sheet
Izabela Szuman, Jakub Z. Kalita, Christiaan R. Diemont, Stephen J. Livingstone, Chris D. Clark, and Martin Margold
The Cryosphere, 18, 2407–2428, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2407-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2407-2024, 2024
Short summary
The influence of firn-layer material properties on surface crevasse propagation in glaciers and ice shelves
Theo Clayton, Ravindra Duddu, Tim Hageman, and Emilio Martinez-Paneda
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-660,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-660, 2024
Short summary
Assessing the potential for ice flow piracy between the Totten and Vanderford glaciers, East Antarctica
Felicity S. McCormack, Jason L. Roberts, Bernd Kulessa, Alan Aitken, Christine F. Dow, Lawrence Bird, Benjamin K. Galton-Fenzi, Katharina Hochmuth, Richard S. Jones, Andrew N. Mackintosh, and Koi McArthur
The Cryosphere, 17, 4549–4569, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4549-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4549-2023, 2023
Short summary
Polar firn properties in Greenland and Antarctica and related effects on microwave brightness temperatures
Haokui Xu, Brooke Medley, Leung Tsang, Joel T. Johnson, Kenneth C. Jezek, Macro Brogioni, and Lars Kaleschke
The Cryosphere, 17, 2793–2809, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2793-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2793-2023, 2023
Short summary

Cited articles

AntArchitecture Steering Committee: AntArchitecture, https://www.scar.org/science/antarchitecture/, last access: 22 July 2023. a
Bazin, L., Landais, A., Lemieux-Dudon, B., Toyé Mahamadou Kele, H., Veres, D., Parrenin, F., Martinerie, P., Ritz, C., Capron, E., Lipenkov, V., Loutre, M.-F., Raynaud, D., Vinther, B., Svensson, A., Rasmussen, S. O., Severi, M., Blunier, T., Leuenberger, M., Fischer, H., Masson-Delmotte, V., Chappellaz, J., and Wolff, E.: An optimized multi-proxy, multi-site Antarctic ice and gas orbital chronology (AICC2012): 120–800 ka, Clim. Past, 9, 1715–1731, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1715-2013, 2013. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i
Bell, R. E., Ferraccioli, F., Creyts, T. T., Braaten, D., Corr, H., Das, I., Damaske, D., Frearson, N., Jordan, T., Rose, K., Studinger, M., and Wolovick, M.: Widespread persistent thickening of the east antarctic ice sheet by freezing from the base, Science, 331, 1592–1595, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1200109, 2011. a
Brennan, P. V., Lok, L. B., Nicholls, K., and Corr, H.: Phase-sensitive FMCW radar system for high-precision antarctic ice shelf profile monitoring, IET Radar Sonar Nav., 8, 776–786, https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-rsn.2013.0053, 2014. a
Buizert, C., Fudge, T. J., Roberts, W. H. G., Steig, E. J., Sherriff-Tadano, S., Ritz, C., Lefebvre, E., Edwards, J., Kawamura, K., Oyabu, I., Motoyama, H., Kahle, E. C., Jones, T. R., Abe-Ouchi, A., Obase, T., Martin, C., Corr, H., Severinghaus, J. P., Beaudette, R., Epifanio, J. A., Brook, E. J., Martin, K., Chappellaz, J., Aoki, S., Nakazawa, T., Sowers, T. A., Alley, R. B., Ahn, J., Sigl, M., Severi, M., Dunbar, N. W., Svensson, A., Fegyveresi, J. M., He, C., Liu, Z., Zhu, J., Otto-Bliesner, B. L., Lipenkov, V. Y., Kageyama, M., and Schwander, J.: Antarctic surface temperature and elevation during the Last Glacial Maximum, Science, 372, 1097–1101, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd2897, 2021. a
Co-editor-in-chief
Oldest Ice is a large project with broad interest and appealing targets. This study shows (i) that the current Beyond EPICA and Million Year Ice Core drilling projects at Little Dome C in Antarctica are expected to extract continuous ice core of almost 1.5 million years; and (ii) estimates the spatial extent of a stagnant ice layer in the Dome C region. This layer of ice could be millions of years old and could have large scale implications for the whole Antarctic ice sheet dynamics.
Short summary
We combined a numerical model with radar measurements in order to determine the age of ice in the Dome C region of Antarctica. Our results show that at the current ice core drilling sites on Little Dome C, the maximum age of the ice is almost 1.5 Ma. We also highlight a new potential drill site called North Patch with ice up to 2 Ma. Finally, we explore the nature of a stagnant ice layer at the base of the ice sheet which has been independently observed and modelled but is not well understood.