Ice cores represent remarkable natural archives able to provide paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental information, and their study is of high relevance in order to improve our understanding of the climate system. Despite the intensive studies in the last decades, the spatial coverage of the Antarctic continent, and in particular of the Northern Victoria Land, is still low with only a small number of cores drilled in this area that are able to provide with reliable information of the chemical and climatic variability over the last millennia. Here, the chemical stratigraphies of ionic species found in a 197m deep ice core drilled at GV7 (Northern Victoria Land) is discussed. The site itself was chosen for the relatively high accumulation rate (241 ± 13 mm we yr−1) that, together with the sampling resolution (5 cm), allowed to identify the annual variability of the chemical species fixed in the snow. Particular attention was given to the non-sea salt contribution of the Sulphate fixed in the snow, arising mostly from biogenic sources but also from major explosive volcanic eruptions. These are capable of altering the global atmosphere for about 2-3 years. During this period, volcanic products (mainly H2SO4) thanks to tropospheric and stratospheric pathways are gradually deposited onto polar ice caps. Analyzing this acidic signal found in the core can therefore provide information about past volcanic events. Furthermore, the identification of a past, known, volcanic eruptions can be used in constraining the dating of the ice core, the first step for a correct interpretation of the chemical variability in a core and the climatic and environmental variability.

Chemical variability over the last millennium as recorded in the ice core "GV7" drilled in Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica

ACS Fall 2021

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