Paleoclimate from Mt. Everest Ice Cores

A New Ice Core from Mt. Logan, Yukon Territory

Principal Investigators: Paul A. Mayewski, Karl Kreutz and Gregory Zielinski

Mt. Logan offers a unique opportunity for monitoring climate change and change in the chemistry of the atmosphere for the Gulf of Alaska and the North Pacific. In 1980 a 103 m ice core was recovered from Mt. Logan. The –29°C mean annual temperature at the site assures that the soluble, insoluble, and isotopic components of the core are as well preserved as sites in central Greenland and interior Antarctica. The 1980 core spanned AD 1689-1980 and displayed well-defined annual layers, calibrated through the identification of radioactive bomb and volcanic horizons, allowing continuous, sub-seasonal sampling for stable isotopes and ion chemistry. The quality of the ice core, the robust suite of ice core measurements available from the core (chemical measurements developed by investigators on this proposal), and peer reviewed papers produced from this ice core (several of which are by investigators on this proposal) combine to make the 1980 record a classic.

During the 2001 and 2002 field seasons, a new ice core to bedrock (190 m) was recovered from the Prospector-Russel Col (5345 masl) area of Mt. Logan by the Geological Survey of Canada. Based on known accumulation rates and preliminary ice flow modeling, the new ice core record likely spans the entire Holocene and possibly a portion of the late Glacial. The University of Maine will develop and interpret detailed time series (8-10+ samples/year over the last 1000-2000 years and multi-annual to decadal through the Holocene and perhaps late Glacial) for: major ions, stable isotopes, trace elements, and tephra from the new Mt. Logan ice core utilizing state-of-the-art technology.
View the Expedition page for 2005.