Measurements of 14C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic 14CH4 and 14CO production rates

Petrenko, Vasilii V.; Severinghaus, Jeffrey P.; Schaefer, Hinrich; Smith, Andrew M.; Kuhl, Tanner; Baggenstos, Daniel; Hua, Quan; Brook, Edward J.; Rose, Paul; Kulin, Robb; Bauska, Thomas; Harth, Christina; Buizert, Christo; Orsi, Anais; Emanuele, Guy; Lee, James E.; Brailsford, Gordon; Keeling, Ralph; Weiss, Ray F.

doi:10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004

Title: Measurements of ¹⁴C in ancient ice from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica constrain in situ cosmogenic ¹⁴CH₄ and ¹⁴CO production rates

Journal Article · 13 January 2016 · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.01.004 · OSTI ID:1737573

Petrenko, Vasilii V. ^[1]; Severinghaus, Jeffrey P. ^[2]; Schaefer, Hinrich ^[3]; Smith, Andrew M. ^[4]; Kuhl, Tanner ^[5]; Baggenstos, Daniel ^[2]; Hua, Quan ^[4]; Brook, Edward J. ^[6]; Rose, Paul ^[7]; Kulin, Robb ^[5]; Bauska, Thomas ^[6]; Harth, Christina ^[2]; Buizert, Christo ^[6]; Orsi, Anais ^[8]; Emanuele, Guy ^[2]; Lee, James E. ^[6]; Brailsford, Gordon ^[3]; Keeling, Ralph ^[2]; Weiss, Ray F. ^[2]

Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Scripps Inst. of Oceanography
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd. (NIWA), Wellington (New Zealand)
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Kirrawee, NSW (Australia)
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. (United States)
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Scripps Inst. of Oceanography; Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA-Saclay), Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

Carbon-14 (¹⁴C) is incorporated into glacial ice by trapping of atmospheric gases as well as direct near-surface in situ cosmogenic production. ¹⁴C of trapped methane (¹⁴CH₄) is a powerful tracer for past CH₄ emissions from “old” carbon sources such as permafrost and marine CH₄ clathrates. ¹⁴C in trapped carbon dioxide (¹⁴CO₂) can be used for absolute dating of ice cores. In situ produced cosmogenic ¹⁴C in carbon monoxide (¹⁴CO) can potentially be used to reconstruct the past cosmic ray flux and past solar activity. Unfortunately, the trapped atmospheric and in situ cosmogenic components of ¹⁴C in glacial ice are difficult to disentangle and a thorough understanding of the in situ cosmogenic component is needed in order to extract useful information from ice core ¹⁴C. Here, we analyzed very large (≈1000 kg) ice samples in the 2.26–19.53 m depth range from the ablation zone of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, to study in situ cosmogenic production of ¹⁴CH₄ and ¹⁴CO. All sampled ice is >50 ka in age, allowing for the assumption that most of the measured ¹⁴C originates from recent in situ cosmogenic production as ancient ice is brought to the surface via ablation. Our results place the first constraints on cosmogenic ¹⁴CH₄ production rates and improve on prior estimates of ¹⁴CO production rates in ice. We find a constant ¹⁴CH₄/¹⁴CO production ratio (0.0076 ± 0.0003) for samples deeper than 3 m, which allows the use of ¹⁴CO for correcting the ¹⁴CH₄ signals for the in situ cosmogenic component. Our results also provide the first unambiguous confirmation of ¹⁴C production by fast muons in a natural setting (ice or rock) and suggest that the ¹⁴C production rates in ice commonly used in the literature may be too high.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1737573

Journal Information:: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Journal Name: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta Vol. 177; ISSN 0016-7037

Publisher:: Elsevier; The Geochemical Society; The Meteoritical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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