Radar internal layers from the Greenland Summit

Abstract

Ice penetrating radar measurements made over the summit region of Greenland show returns from internal layers which can be used to augment the interpretation of climate information from the two deep cores recently recovered from this area. These reflecting surfaces, believed to represent isochrones, give information about the stress regime near the summit, and may aid in a better calibration of the age depth scale between the two cores — particularly in the lowest 10% of ice thickness where there is currently disagreement. The approximate depth at which internal echoes become discontinuous corresponds with the observations of steep inclinations and overturned folds on the scale of centimeters in the core samples. However the deepest internal layers which can be distinguished in the profiles place constraints on the scale and location of high angle or overturned folds.