Atmospheric Trace-Gas Variations as Revealed by Air Trapped in an Ice Core from Law Dome, Antarctica

Abstract

A technique for extracting and analysing large air samples from bubbles occluded in an Antarctic ice core is discussed. Core samples of up to 1400 g were milled to release approximately 120 cm3 of air, which was dried, collected in a cold finger and then analysed by gas chromatography. The concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) over the past 450 years have thus been revealed. Measurements of a chlorofluorocarbon (CCl2F2) in the ice-core air were used to check core quality and the air-occlusion process. The ice core, designated BHD, was thermally drilled from the summit of Law Dome, Antarctica, where the average accumulation rate is 0.65 m a-1 water equivalent and the annual average temperature is –22°C. Ice dating was achieved by counting annual cycles of oxygen-isotope ratio and d.c. conductivity, and air dating was deduced from the density profile. The results show the pre-industrial concentrations of the gases to be 288 ± 5 ppm volume for CO2, 800 ± 50 ppb volume for CH4 and 285 ± 10 ppb volume for N20.