Oldest Ice: finding and interpreting climate proxies in ice older than 700 000 years (TC/CP/ESSD inter-journal SI)(TC/CP/ESSD inter-journal SI)
Oldest Ice: finding and interpreting climate proxies in ice older than 700 000 years (TC/CP/ESSD inter-journal SI)(TC/CP/ESSD inter-journal SI)
Editor(s): CP editors | Coordinator: M.-F. Loutre Special issue jointly organized between The Cryosphere, Climate of the Past, and Earth System Science Data
The glacial–interglacial cyclicity of the climate system varied in the past, most notably during the transition from a 40 ka to a 100 ka world in the mid-Pleistocene. Gases trapped in Antarctic ice are the most direct access available to investigate the composition of the paleo-atmosphere of that age and processes related to climate variability. The International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) Oldest Ice endeavour aims at obtaining an undisturbed ice-core record older than 1 Ma. In addition to ice cores, time slices of paleo-records, available, for example, in Antarctic blue-ice fields, provide further valuable information, which complements continuous time series based on ice cores. This special issue assembles contributions dedicated to the preparatory phase of this global effort to obtain ice samples and time series older than 700 000 years. This includes a consideration of glaciogical and geophysical settings which allow the presence of old ice, results from pre-site surveys and modelling studies, aspects of ice-core and other sampling techniques and analyses, and requirements for drilling and core handling.

Download citations of all papers

12 Nov 2024
Predicting trends in atmospheric CO2 across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition using existing climate archives
Jordan R. W. Martin, Joel B. Pedro, and Tessa R. Vance
Clim. Past, 20, 2487–2497, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2487-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2487-2024, 2024
Short summary
16 Sep 2024
New estimates of sulfate diffusion rates in the EPICA Dome C ice core
Rachael H. Rhodes, Yvan Bollet-Quivogne, Piers Barnes, Mirko Severi, and Eric W. Wolff
Clim. Past, 20, 2031–2043, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2031-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2031-2024, 2024
Short summary
02 Sep 2024
Advancing interpretation of incoherent scattering in ice penetrating radar data used for ice core site selection
Ellen Lucinda Mutter and Nicholas Holschuh
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2450,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2450, 2024
Preprint under review for TC (discussion: final response, 2 comments)
Short summary
20 Aug 2024
Novel approach to estimate the water isotope diffusion length in deep ice cores with an application to Marine Isotope Stage 19 in the Dome C ice core
Fyntan Shaw, Andrew M. Dolman, Torben Kunz, Vasileios Gkinis, and Thomas Laepple
The Cryosphere, 18, 3685–3698, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3685-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3685-2024, 2024
Short summary
08 Jul 2024
Evaluating marine dust records as templates for optical dating of Oldest Ice
Jessica Ng, Jeffrey Severinghaus, Ryan Bay, and Delia Tosi
Clim. Past, 20, 1437–1449, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1437-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1437-2024, 2024
Short summary
14 Jun 2024
Age, thinning and spatial origin of the Beyond EPICA ice from a 2.5D ice flow model
Ailsa Chung, Frédéric Parrenin, Robert Mulvaney, Luca Vittuari, Massimo Frezzotti, Antonio Zanutta, David A. Lilien, Marie G. P. Cavitte, and Olaf Eisen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1650,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1650, 2024
Preprint under review for TC (discussion: final response, 2 comments)
Short summary
09 Apr 2024
Brief communication: Identification of 140 000-year-old blue ice in the Grove Mountains, East Antarctica, by krypton-81 dating
Zhengyi Hu, Wei Jiang, Yuzhen Yan, Yan Huang, Xueyuan Tang, Lin Li, Florian Ritterbusch, Guo-Min Yang, Zheng-Tian Lu, and Guitao Shi
The Cryosphere, 18, 1647–1652, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1647-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1647-2024, 2024
Short summary
08 Feb 2024
Effective diffusivity of sulfuric acid in Antarctic ice cores
Tyler J. Fudge, Raphael Sauvage, Linh Vu, Benjamin H. Hills, Mirko Severi, and Edwin D. Waddington
Clim. Past, 20, 297–312, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-297-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-297-2024, 2024
Short summary
10 Oct 2023
Mapping age and basal conditions of ice in the Dome Fuji region, Antarctica, by combining radar internal layer stratigraphy and flow modeling
Zhuo Wang, Ailsa Chung, Daniel Steinhage, Frédéric Parrenin, Johannes Freitag, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 17, 4297–4314, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4297-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4297-2023, 2023
Short summary
24 Aug 2023
| Highlight paper
Stagnant ice and age modelling in the Dome C region, Antarctica
Ailsa Chung, Frédéric Parrenin, Daniel Steinhage, Robert Mulvaney, Carlos Martín, Marie G. P. Cavitte, David A. Lilien, Veit Helm, Drew Taylor, Prasad Gogineni, Catherine Ritz, Massimo Frezzotti, Charles O'Neill, Heinrich Miller, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 17, 3461–3483, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3461-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3461-2023, 2023
Short summary
29 Jun 2023
A one-dimensional temperature and age modeling study for selecting the drill site of the oldest ice core near Dome Fuji, Antarctica
Takashi Obase, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Fuyuki Saito, Shun Tsutaki, Shuji Fujita, Kenji Kawamura, and Hideaki Motoyama
The Cryosphere, 17, 2543–2562, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2543-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2543-2023, 2023
Short summary
17 Oct 2022
Sub-millennial climate variability from high-resolution water isotopes in the EPICA Dome C ice core
Antoine Grisart, Mathieu Casado, Vasileios Gkinis, Bo Vinther, Philippe Naveau, Mathieu Vrac, Thomas Laepple, Bénédicte Minster, Frederic Prié, Barbara Stenni, Elise Fourré, Hans Christian Steen-Larsen, Jean Jouzel, Martin Werner, Katy Pol, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Maria Hoerhold, Trevor Popp, and Amaelle Landais
Clim. Past, 18, 2289–2301, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2289-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2289-2022, 2022
Short summary
27 Jul 2022
High-resolution subglacial topography around Dome Fuji, Antarctica, based on ground-based radar surveys over 30 years
Shun Tsutaki, Shuji Fujita, Kenji Kawamura, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Kotaro Fukui, Hideaki Motoyama, Yu Hoshina, Fumio Nakazawa, Takashi Obase, Hiroshi Ohno, Ikumi Oyabu, Fuyuki Saito, Konosuke Sugiura, and Toshitaka Suzuki
The Cryosphere, 16, 2967–2983, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2967-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2967-2022, 2022
Short summary
27 Jul 2022
Development of crystal orientation fabric in the Dome Fuji ice core in East Antarctica: implications for the deformation regime in ice sheets
Tomotaka Saruya, Shuji Fujita, Yoshinori Iizuka, Atsushi Miyamoto, Hiroshi Ohno, Akira Hori, Wataru Shigeyama, Motohiro Hirabayashi, and Kumiko Goto-Azuma
The Cryosphere, 16, 2985–3003, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2985-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2985-2022, 2022
Short summary
07 Jul 2022
| Highlight paper
Stratigraphic templates for ice core records of the past 1.5 Myr
Eric W. Wolff, Hubertus Fischer, Tas van Ommen, and David A. Hodell
Clim. Past, 18, 1563–1577, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1563-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1563-2022, 2022
Short summary
19 Oct 2021
A detailed radiostratigraphic data set for the central East Antarctic Plateau spanning from the Holocene to the mid-Pleistocene
Marie G. P. Cavitte, Duncan A. Young, Robert Mulvaney, Catherine Ritz, Jamin S. Greenbaum, Gregory Ng, Scott D. Kempf, Enrica Quartini, Gail R. Muldoon, John Paden, Massimo Frezzotti, Jason L. Roberts, Carly R. Tozer, Dustin M. Schroeder, and Donald D. Blankenship
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4759–4777, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4759-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4759-2021, 2021
Short summary
12 Oct 2021
| Highlight paper
Deep ice as a geochemical reactor: insights from iron speciation and mineralogy of dust in the Talos Dome ice core (East Antarctica)
Giovanni Baccolo, Barbara Delmonte, Elena Di Stefano, Giannantonio Cibin, Ilaria Crotti, Massimo Frezzotti, Dariush Hampai, Yoshinori Iizuka, Augusto Marcelli, and Valter Maggi
The Cryosphere, 15, 4807–4822, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4807-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4807-2021, 2021
Short summary
18 Aug 2021
Investigating the internal structure of the Antarctic ice sheet: the utility of isochrones for spatiotemporal ice-sheet model calibration
Johannes Sutter, Hubertus Fischer, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 15, 3839–3860, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3839-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3839-2021, 2021
Short summary
29 Jul 2021
Two-dimensional impurity imaging in deep Antarctic ice cores: snapshots of three climatic periods and implications for high-resolution signal interpretation
Pascal Bohleber, Marco Roman, Martin Šala, Barbara Delmonte, Barbara Stenni, and Carlo Barbante
The Cryosphere, 15, 3523–3538, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3523-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3523-2021, 2021
Short summary
19 Apr 2021
Brief communication: New radar constraints support presence of ice older than 1.5 Myr at Little Dome C
David A. Lilien, Daniel Steinhage, Drew Taylor, Frédéric Parrenin, Catherine Ritz, Robert Mulvaney, Carlos Martín, Jie-Bang Yan, Charles O'Neill, Massimo Frezzotti, Heinrich Miller, Prasad Gogineni, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 15, 1881–1888, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1881-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1881-2021, 2021
Short summary
08 Apr 2021
Aerogeophysical characterization of Titan Dome, East Antarctica, and potential as an ice core target
Lucas H. Beem, Duncan A. Young, Jamin S. Greenbaum, Donald D. Blankenship, Marie G. P. Cavitte, Jingxue Guo, and Sun Bo
The Cryosphere, 15, 1719–1730, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1719-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1719-2021, 2021
Short summary
01 Feb 2021
Reconstructing the evolution of ice sheets, sea level, and atmospheric CO2 during the past 3.6 million years
Constantijn J. Berends, Bas de Boer, and Roderik S. W. van de Wal
Clim. Past, 17, 361–377, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-361-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-361-2021, 2021
Short summary
19 Jul 2019
Modelling the Antarctic Ice Sheet across the mid-Pleistocene transition – implications for Oldest Ice
Johannes Sutter, Hubertus Fischer, Klaus Grosfeld, Nanna B. Karlsson, Thomas Kleiner, Brice Van Liefferinge, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 13, 2023–2041, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2023-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2023-2019, 2019
Short summary
18 Jul 2019
Age stratigraphy in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet inferred from radio-echo sounding horizons
Anna Winter, Daniel Steinhage, Timothy T. Creyts, Thomas Kleiner, and Olaf Eisen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 11, 1069–1081, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1069-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1069-2019, 2019
30 Aug 2018
| Highlight paper
Promising Oldest Ice sites in East Antarctica based on thermodynamical modelling
Brice Van Liefferinge, Frank Pattyn, Marie G. P. Cavitte, Nanna B. Karlsson, Duncan A. Young, Johannes Sutter, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 12, 2773–2787, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2773-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2773-2018, 2018
Short summary
25 Jul 2018
Glaciological characteristics in the Dome Fuji region and new assessment for “Oldest Ice”
Nanna B. Karlsson, Tobias Binder, Graeme Eagles, Veit Helm, Frank Pattyn, Brice Van Liefferinge, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 12, 2413–2424, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2413-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2413-2018, 2018
Short summary
15 May 2018
Where is the 1-million-year-old ice at Dome A?
Liyun Zhao, John C. Moore, Bo Sun, Xueyuan Tang, and Xiaoran Guo
The Cryosphere, 12, 1651–1663, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1651-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1651-2018, 2018
Short summary
17 Apr 2018
Accumulation patterns around Dome C, East Antarctica, in the last 73 kyr
Marie G. P. Cavitte, Frédéric Parrenin, Catherine Ritz, Duncan A. Young, Brice Van Liefferinge, Donald D. Blankenship, Massimo Frezzotti, and Jason L. Roberts
The Cryosphere, 12, 1401–1414, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1401-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1401-2018, 2018
Short summary
02 Nov 2017
| Highlight paper
Is there 1.5-million-year-old ice near Dome C, Antarctica?
Frédéric Parrenin, Marie G. P. Cavitte, Donald D. Blankenship, Jérôme Chappellaz, Hubertus Fischer, Olivier Gagliardini, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Olivier Passalacqua, Catherine Ritz, Jason Roberts, Martin J. Siegert, and Duncan A. Young
The Cryosphere, 11, 2427–2437, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2427-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2427-2017, 2017
Short summary
20 Sep 2017
Geothermal flux and basal melt rate in the Dome C region inferred from radar reflectivity and heat modelling
Olivier Passalacqua, Catherine Ritz, Frédéric Parrenin, Stefano Urbini, and Massimo Frezzotti
The Cryosphere, 11, 2231–2246, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2231-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2231-2017, 2017
Short summary
14 Aug 2017
| Highlight paper
High-resolution boundary conditions of an old ice target near Dome C, Antarctica
Duncan A. Young, Jason L. Roberts, Catherine Ritz, Massimo Frezzotti, Enrica Quartini, Marie G. P. Cavitte, Carly R. Tozer, Daniel Steinhage, Stefano Urbini, Hugh F. J. Corr, Tas van Ommen, and Donald D. Blankenship
The Cryosphere, 11, 1897–1911, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-1897-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-1897-2017, 2017
Short summary
01 Mar 2017
Comparison of measurements from different radio-echo sounding systems and synchronization with the ice core at Dome C, Antarctica
Anna Winter, Daniel Steinhage, Emily J. Arnold, Donald D. Blankenship, Marie G. P. Cavitte, Hugh F. J. Corr, John D. Paden, Stefano Urbini, Duncan A. Young, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 11, 653–668, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-653-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-653-2017, 2017
05 Nov 2013
| Highlight paper
Where to find 1.5 million yr old ice for the IPICS "Oldest-Ice" ice core
H. Fischer, J. Severinghaus, E. Brook, E. Wolff, M. Albert, O. Alemany, R. Arthern, C. Bentley, D. Blankenship, J. Chappellaz, T. Creyts, D. Dahl-Jensen, M. Dinn, M. Frezzotti, S. Fujita, H. Gallee, R. Hindmarsh, D. Hudspeth, G. Jugie, K. Kawamura, V. Lipenkov, H. Miller, R. Mulvaney, F. Parrenin, F. Pattyn, C. Ritz, J. Schwander, D. Steinhage, T. van Ommen, and F. Wilhelms
Clim. Past, 9, 2489–2505, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2489-2013,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2489-2013, 2013
CC BY 4.0