Surface Mass-Balance Variability Near “Byrd” Station, Antarctica, and its Importance to Ice Core Stratigraphy

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Abstract
The local variability in surface mass balance (net snow accumulation) up-glacier from "Byrd" station, Antarctica, is due to the combined effects of year-to-year "climate" variations and of the surface microrelief clue to snow drifts and sastrugi. These variabilities are consistent with the variability in surface mass balance obtained from core stratigraphy (Gow, 1968), and are used in a discussion of the difficulties encountered with the deep "Byrd" station core in detecting annual layering by the stable oxygen-isotope ratio and the microparticle concentration techniques. The recognition of annual layers by these techniques requires that the snows of certain seasons be present in the measured section, but near "Byrd" station the microrclief is such that summer snow layers are not horizontally continuous and may be absent from a given section. At other sites on ice sheets, where the microrelief is less (less wind activity) or where the surface mass balance is larger, or both, less difficulty is anticipated in using the stable oxygen-isotope ratio and micro-particle-concentration techniques to identify annual layers.