This award is for support of a study of cosmogenic in-situ produced carbon-14 in polar ice. Carbon-14 produced in-situ has a signature which is distinct from the trapped atmospheric carbon-14, and can be used as a tracer for ice accumulation/ablation processes and rates. Work carried out under a previous grant established that an appreciable amount of in-situ carbon-14 is retained in firn, and therefore conventional carbon-14 compaction ages can be considerable underestimates since they do not consider the in-situ component. This study will examine samples from several ice cores from the Antarctic, including Vostok, the Dominion Range, McMurdo, South Pole, Allan Hills and the Adelie Coast.
