A continuous 250-year record of volcanic activity from Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica

Abstract

A 51.85 m ice core collected from site LGB65 (accumulation rate 127 kg m −2 a −1 , mean annual temperature −33.1°C) in Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica, during the 1996–97 Chinese First Antarctic Inland Expedition has been analysed for chemical composition and oxygen isotope ratio. Based on the high definition of seasonal variations of major ions, the ice core was dated with errors within ± 3 years. The continuous sulphate analysis of the ice core provides an annually resolved proxy history of southern hemisphere volcanism in the past 250 years. High nssSO 4 2− , concentrations seem to be well correlated to some explosive volcanic eruptions, such as Tambora ( AD 1815), Coseguina ( AD 1835), Krakatoa ( AD 1883) and Tarawera ( AD 1886). In comparison with other volcanic records, it seems that nssSO 4 2− concentration data provide a better proxy for detecting volcanic activity than nssSO 4 2− fluxes in low and intermediate accumulation regions, however, in high accumulation regions, small and moderate events may be more identifiable using of nssSO 4 2− flux data.