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Recommendations for a U.S. Ice Coring Program (1986)

Chapter: APPENDIX C: Laboratory Analysis of Ice Cores

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Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX C: Laboratory Analysis of Ice Cores." National Research Council. 1986. Recommendations for a U.S. Ice Coring Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18404.
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Page 60
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX C: Laboratory Analysis of Ice Cores." National Research Council. 1986. Recommendations for a U.S. Ice Coring Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18404.
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Page 61

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Appendix C Laboratory Analysis of Ice Cores Listing of U.S. Institutions Prepared for the ad hoc Panel by Minzie Stuiver University of Washington, Seattle The institutes of those researchers that are known to the committee to be either active or strongly interested in ice core analysis are listed below, according to research emphasis. Stable Isotopes University of Washington University of Rhode Island Scripps Oceanographic Institution Microparticles Concentration and size distribution: Ohio State University Elemental and chemical composition: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Ohio State University University of Rhode Island Ice Chemistry Carnegie-Mellon University Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory Lawrence Livermore Laboratory State University of New York, Buffalo University of New Hampshire Gas Chemistry California Institute of Technology Oregon Graduate School Scripps Institution of Oceanography Smithsonian Institution University of Rhode Island 60

61 Trace Metals California Institute of Technology U.S. Geological Survey University of Chicago University of Kansas Radioisotopes Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Scripps Institute of Oceanography New York State Department of Health University of Arizona* University of Pennsylvania* University of Rochester* University of Washington* (* AMS facilities) Physical Properties of Ice California Institute of Technology CRREL PICO State University of New York, Buffalo University of Alaska University of Colorado University of Maine University of Minnesota University of Washington University of Wisconsin

Next: APPENDIX D: Status of Ice Core Storage Facility at State University of New York, Buffalo »
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 Recommendations for a U.S. Ice Coring Program
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Ice and climate are inextricable linked. The major climate variations of the past "ice ages" are characterized by vast advances of ice over the land and sea. Glaciers and ice sheets affect our current climate. In the future, human modification climate, either purposeful or inadvertent, may cause major changes in the global ice volume and sea level. In addition to its active role in the climate system, ice also contains unique information about past climates. A clear reconstruction of climate history is an essential step toward understanding climate processes and testing theories that can predict future climate changes.

Polar ice sheets and some ice caps contain ice layered in an undisturbed, year-by-year sequence. The isotopic composition of the ice, the enclosed air, and trace constituents including particles and dissolved impurities provide information about the composition, temperature, and circulation of the atmosphere. In turn these may provide information about other conditions that affects the atmosphere. The recent ice layers contain a record of anthropogenic pollutants such as carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases, and heavy metals. Ice cores retrieved from depths down to 2000 m in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have revealed variations in these climatic indicators over the last 150,000 years.

Recommendations for a U.S. Ice Coring Program endorses these scientific priorities and strongly recommends that the United States:

  • Initiate a program of ice coring and analysis over a period of at least 10 years;
  • Obtain high resolution climatic time series, with wide geographical coverage over the last several thousand years by analyses of cores from various depths at many locations in both polar regions and nonpolar regions; and
  • Obtain long-period climatic time series of several hundred thousand years from both Polar Regions.

This report examines the current status of ice core research in the United States and recommends specific steps to implement an ice coring and analysis program.

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