Achievement

Gifford Wong, IGERT trainee in Earth Sciences, characterized trace element response to melt percolation in snowpit experiments from Summit, Greenland. The 2010 IGERT Greenland Field Seminar class assisted in sampling the experiment and in documenting changes in snow physical properties in response to adding meltwater to the snow surface. Meltwater infiltration into the near surface was highly variable and challenging to document. Despite the presence of meltwater intrusion, the seasonal chemical signal (based on trace metal analysis of 12 elements by depth) is clearly preserved within the four snowpits examined in this study. This study shows that dust trace elements retain their annual stratigraphy and may be used as a dating parameter in melt-affected ice cores. Understanding meltwater-related glaciochemical effects is increasingly important as ice core records are more frequently collected from areas experiencing melt as the Greenland Ice Sheet responds to climate warming.