Spatial pattern of accumulation at Taylor Dome during the last glacial inception: stratigraphic constraints from Taylor Glacier

Abstract

Abstract.A new ice core retrieved from the Taylor Glacier blue ice area contains ice and air spanning the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5/4 transition (74 to 65 ka), a period of global cooling and glacial inception. 25Dating the ice and air bubbles in the new ice core reveals an ice age-gas age difference (Δage) approaching 10 ka during MIS 4, implying very low accumulation at the Taylor Glacier accumulation zone on the northern flank of Taylor Dome. A revised chronology for the Taylor Dome ice core (80 to 55 ka), situated to the south of the Taylor Glacier accumulation zone, shows that Δage did not exceed 2.5 ka at that location. The difference in Δage between the new Taylor Glacier ice core and the Taylor Dome ice core 30 implies a spatial gradient in snow accumulation across Taylor Dome that intensified during the last glacial inception and through MIS 4.