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A method to reconstruct past accumulation rates in alpine firn regions: A study on Fiescherhorn, Swiss Alps
Citation
Schwerzmann, A and Funk, M and Blatter, H and Luethi, M and Schwikowski, M and Palmer, AS, A method to reconstruct past accumulation rates in alpine firn regions: A study on Fiescherhorn, Swiss Alps, Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface, 111, (F1) pp. F01014. ISSN 0148-0227 (2006) [Refereed Article]
Abstract
Annual snow layers in the accumulation zone of glaciers become thinner by viscous deformation while moving to greater depth. The reconstruction of the accumulation rate history requires the correction of the thickness of annual layers. We apply a novel method to determine the vertical velocity by repeated survey with a caliper probe of grooves scratched into the wall of a borehole. With this information and the assumptions of steady state velocity and density fields, the correction of layer thicknesses can be determined without knowledge of the ice density profile and thus can be applied to boreholes without ice cores. The method is applied to a borehole on Fiescherhorn, Swiss Alps, resulting in a substantially larger correction than with the simpler method of Nye (1963). Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
Research Group: | Physical geography and environmental geoscience |
Research Field: | Glaciology |
Objective Division: | Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards |
Objective Group: | Understanding climate change |
Objective Field: | Climate variability (excl. social impacts) |
UTAS Author: | Palmer, AS (Dr Anne Palmer) |
ID Code: | 43021 |
Year Published: | 2006 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 15 |
Deposited By: | Chemistry |
Deposited On: | 2006-08-01 |
Last Modified: | 2011-11-07 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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