China National Report Prepared by: Ren Jiawen, email: jwren@public.lz.qs.cn
and Dahe Qin, email: gdh@rays.cma.gov.cn
Performed activities of Chinese ITASE during past 5 years:
In the frame of ITASE objectives, the first inland traverse expedition
was carried out 300km inland of Zhongshan Station during 1996/97 austral
summer (13rd CHINARE). The traverse extended southward to 470km during
1997/98 (14th CHINARE) and 1108km during 1998/99 (15th CHINARE) field
season. A short traverse –164km—was carried out during 2001/02
(18th CHINARE) austral summer.
Route of Traverse
The traverse route starts from the margin near Zhongshan Station and terminated
at present adjacent to Dome A (Figure 1)
Locations and depth of ice cores drilled
Totally three ice cores of 50m in depth, one of 80m in depth and two of
100m in depth has been drilled along the route. The locations of cores
are as followings.
LGB69 one core 102m in depth 70°50'06"S,77°04'28"E 1850m a.s.l.
DT001 two cores 50m in depth 71°52'58"S, 77°56'59"E 2320m a.s.l.
DT085 one core 52m in depth 73°22'03"S, 77°00'54"E 2600m a.s.l.
DT263 one core 82m in depth 76°30'S, 77°03'E, 2930m a.s.l.
DT801 one core 100m in depth 79°01'S, 77°00'E, 3760m a.s.l
Measurements made on cores
Beta activities, major ions (K, Na, Ca, Mg, SO4, NO3,
Cl), NH4, NO2 , Br, Stable isotopes (δ18O),
MSA, trace metals, physical profiles, density.
Related activities
1) Mass balance measurement along 1100km route; 2) surface snow samples
collection along 1100km route every 4 to 10 km; 3) Aerosol and air samples
collection at several sites; 4) An automatic weather station was installed
at LGB69 (70°50"06'S,77°04'28"E, 1850m a.s.l.) (Figure 2). 5)
Echo-radar sounding measurement for ice thickness continuously along 1100km;
6) Precise GPS positioning for ice flow measurement at 25 sites, among
them 8 was re-measured; and 7) Meteorological observation along the traverse
route.
Figure 1. Chinese ITASE traverse route (a green triangle) and the ice cores drilled during the past five years (denoted as red dots)
Figure 2. An AWS installed at LGB69 during CHINARE-18 (2001/02)
