9423441 Zielienski Researchers at the University of New Hampshire will investigate the relationship between climate and volcanism by extracting ash layers from ice cores recovered by the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2). Large volumes of volcanic material in the atmosphere may affect the global heat budget for years. The relationship of volcanism and climate change, however, has not been convincingly demonstrated due to the lack of a data set that contains records of both volcanism and climate. GISP2 ice cores provide such a record. The ash layers will by analyzed geochemically so that the "fingerprint" of individual ash layers may be used to determine the volcanic center where the eruption occurred. Once the source of the ash is determined and the timing is established by the location of the ash within the well-dated ice core, then the relative magnitude of the eruption will be known. By comparing the timing of the volcanic eruptions to the climate record in the ice core, the potential impact of large eruptions on climate change may be examined. ***
