The Climatic Record in Polar Ice Sheets

by Edited by Gordon de Q. Robin

• ISBN13: 9780521153645
• ISBN10: 0521153646
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Originally published in 1983, this multi-author work reviews the then current knowledge of the isotopic and temperature profiles of polar ice sheets. The polar ice sheets contain a wonderfully detailed record of the atmospheric history of the Earth that extends back for hundreds of thousands of years. This book is the result of a workshop held at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge. The review includes the glacial geology and glaciology of ice sheets; measurement and significance of glaciological parameters; temperature, isotopic and gas content profiles; and the climatic record from ice cores. The results presented in this volume will be of particular interest to glaciologists and climatologists.

Table of Contents

List of contributors

Preface

Ice Sheets: Isotopes and Temperatures

Ice Sheets: Glacial Geology and Glaciology

Data on the size of former ice sheets

Surface profiles of ice sheets

Migration of centres of ice domes and ice-shelf inland-ice boundaries

Form and flow of the Antarctic ice sheet during the last million years

The Greenland ice sheet

Glaciological Parameters, their Measurement and Significance

Isotopic composition of the ocean surface as a source for the ice in Antarctica

Atmospheric processes

Antarctica: survey of near-surface mean isotopic values

Diffusion of stable isotopes

Techniques for measuring temperatures in glaciers and ice sheets

Accumulation rate measurements on cold polar glaciers

Ice movement

Ice depths, including depths along flowlines

Total gas content

Debris and isotopic sequences in basal layers of polar ice sheets

Radio-echo studies of internal layering of polar ice sheets

Presentation of Data

General glaciology

Profile data, Greenland region

Profile data, inland Antarctica

Coastal sites, Antarctica

Analysis of Temperature, Isotopic and Total Gas Content Profiles

Synopsis

Heat conduction studies

Elevation and climatic changes from total gas content and stable isotopic measurements

Techniques for the analysis of temperature-depth profiles in ice sheets

Application of modelling techniques to measured profiles of temperatures and isotopes

Summary and conclusions

The Climatic Record From Ice Cores

The ¿ value-temperature relationship

Isotopic-temperature noise

Regional and global trends: the climatic record

Conclusion

Appendix

References

Index

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