# Colle Gnifetti 275 Year Ice Core Black Carbon and Chemical Data #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, Boulder # and # NOAA Paleoclimatology Program # National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # Template Version 3.0 # Encoding: UTF-8 # NOTE: Please cite Publication, and Online_Resource and date accessed when using these data. # If there is no publication information, please cite Investigators, Title, and Online_Resource and date accessed. # # Online_Resource: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/26390 # Description: NOAA Landing Page # Online_Resource: https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/icecore/trop/gnifetti/gnifetti2018samples01a.txt # Description: NOAA location of the template # # Original_Source_URL: # Description: # # Description/Documentation lines begin with # # Data lines have no # # # Archive: Ice Cores # # Dataset DOI: # # Parameter_Keywords: chemistry #-------------------- # Contribution_Date # Date: 2019-03-18 #-------------------- # File_Last_Modified_Date # Date: 2019-03-18 #-------------------- # Title # Study_Name: Colle Gnifetti 275 Year Ice Core Black Carbon and Chemical Data #-------------------- # Investigators # Investigators: Sigl, M.; Abram, N.J.; Gabrieli, J.; Jenk, T.M.; Osmont, D.; Schwikowski, M. #-------------------- # Description_Notes_and_Keywords # Description: Black carbon and chemistry measurements from 2 ice cores collected on Colle Gnifetti in the Swiss-Italian Alps, for the past 275 years. #-------------------- # Publication # Authors: Michael Sigl, Nerilie J. Abram, Jacopo Gabrieli, Theo M. Jenk, Dimitri Osmont, and Margit Schwikowski # Published_Date_or_Year: 2018-10-16 # Published_Title: 19th century glacier retreat in the Alps preceded the emergence of industrial black carbon deposition on high-alpine glaciers # Journal_Name: The Cryosphere # Volume: 12 # Edition: # Issue: # Pages: 3311-3331 # Report_Number: # DOI: 10.5194/tc-12-3311-2018 # Online_Resource: https://www.the-cryosphere.net/12/3311/2018/tc-12-3311-2018-discussion.html # Full_Citation: # Abstract: Light absorbing aerosols in the atmosphere and cryosphere play an important role in the climate system. Their presence in ambient air and snow changes the radiative properties of these systems, thus contributing to increased atmospheric warming and snowmelt. High spatio-temporal variability of aerosol concentrations and a shortage of longterm observations contribute to large uncertainties in properly assigning the climate effects of aerosols through time. Starting around AD1860, many glaciers in the European Alps began to retreat from their maximum mid-19th century terminus positions, thereby visualizing the end of the Little Ice Age in Europe. Radiative forcing by increasing deposition of industrial black carbon to snow has been suggested as the main driver of the abrupt glacier retreats in the Alps. The basis for this hypothesis was model simulations using elemental carbon concentrations at low temporal resolution from two ice cores in the Alps. Here we present sub-annually resolved concentration records of refractory black carbon (rBC; using soot photometry) as well as distinctive tracers for mineral dust, biomass burning and industrial pollution from the Colle Gnifetti ice core in the Alps from AD1741 to 2015. These records allow precise assessment of a potential relation between the timing of observed acceleration of glacier melt in the mid-19th century with an increase of rBC deposition on the glacier caused by the industrialization of Western Europe. Our study reveals that in AD1875, the time when rBC ice-core concentrations started to significantly increase, the majority of Alpine glaciers had already experienced more than 80% of their total 19th century length reduction, casting doubt on a leading role for soot in terminating of the Little Ice Age. Attribution of glacial retreat requires expansion of the spatial network and sampling density of high alpine ice cores to balance potential biasing effects arising from transport, deposition, and snow conservation in individual ice-core records. #------------------ # Publication # Authors: Theo M. Jenk, Sönke Szidat, David Bolius, Michael Sigl, Heinz W. Gäggeler, Lukas Wacker, Matthias Ruff, Carlo Barbante, Claude F. Boutron, Margit Schwikowski # Published_Date_or_Year: 2009-07-27 # Published_Title: A novel radiocarbon dating technique applied to an ice core from the Alps indicating late Pleistocene ages # Journal_Name: Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres # Volume: 114 # Edition: # Issue: D14 # Pages: # Report_Number: # DOI: 10.1029/2009JD011860 # Online_Resource: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2009JD011860 # Full_Citation: # Abstract: Ice cores retrieved from high-altitude glaciers are important archives of past climatic and atmospheric conditions in midlatitude and tropical regions. Because of the specific flow behavior of ice, their age-depth relationship is nonlinear, preventing the application of common dating methods such as annual layer counting in the deepest and oldest part. Here we present a new approach and technique, allowing dating of any such ice core at arbitrary depth for the age range between ~500 years B.P. and the late Pleistocene. This new, complementary dating tool has great potential for numerous ice core related paleoclimate studies since it allows improvement and extension of existing and future chronologies. Using small to ultrasmall sample size (100 ug > carbon content > 5 ug) accelerator mass spectrometry, we take advantage of the ice-included, water-insoluble organic carbon fraction of carbonaceous aerosols for radiocarbon (14C) dating. Analysis and dating of the bottom ice of the Colle Gnifetti glacier (Swiss-Italian Alps, 45 55'50"N, 7 52'33"E, 4455 m asl) has been successful in a first application, and the results revealed the core to cover most of the Holocene at the least with indication for late Pleistocene ice present at the very bottom. #------------------ # Publication # Authors: Jacopo Gabrieli, Carlo Barbante # Published_Date_or_Year: 2014-03-01 # Published_Title: The Alps in the age of the Anthropocene: the impact of human activities on the cryosphere recorded in the Colle Gnifetti glacier # Journal_Name: Rendiconti Lincei # Volume: 25 # Edition: # Issue: 1 # Pages: 71-83 # Report_Number: # DOI: 10.1007/s12210-014-0292-2 # Online_Resource: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12210-014-0292-2 # Full_Citation: # Abstract: The evaluation of the impact of anthropogenic activities on mountain areas is an important task, because they represent the last remaining natural and pristine environments in highly industrialized continental regions. The deposition of ubiquitous, persistent and toxic organic pollutants in high-altitude sites can potentially affect the alpine ecosystem, which is often characterized by unique plant and animal communities which are precious in terms of ecological value as well as being fragile and easily spoiled. Records from Alpine ice cores have demonstrated to be among the best tools in paleoenvironmental studies to reconstruct past emissions of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants. From the comparison of trace species records in the snow and ice with the emission inventories compiled in recent years it is also possible to reconstruct the past trends in the emission of these compounds. This knowledge enables a better environmental management and a more effective planning of the human activities in the light of a new sustainable development and could represent the base of a wide and motivated participation to the creation of the future generations. Here, we summarize the results of the geochemical analysis of the Colle Gnifetti firn/ice core, in the Monte Rosa group (NW European Alps). #------------------ # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: Swiss National Science Foundation # Grant: CRSII2_154450/1 #------------------ # Site_Information # Site_Name: Colle Gnifetti # Location: Europe>Southern Europe>Italy # Country: Italy # Northernmost_Latitude: 45.93056 # Southernmost_Latitude: 45.93056 # Easternmost_Longitude: 7.87583 # Westernmost_Longitude: 7.87583 # Elevation: 4455 m #------------------ # Data_Collection # Collection_Name: Gnifetti2018 # Earliest_Year: 1741 # Most_Recent_Year: 2015 # Time_Unit: CE # Core_Length: # Notes: #------------------ # Chronology_Information # Chronology: # #---------------- # Variables # # Data variables follow are preceded by "##" in columns one and two. # Data line variables format: one per line, shortname-tab-variable components (what, material, error, units, seasonality, data type,detail, method, C or N for Character or Numeric data, free text) # ## depth_m depth, , , m, , , , ,N, ## depth_weq depth water equivalent, , , m, , , , ,N,depth meters water equivalent ## age_CE age, , , years Common Era, , , , ,N, middle Year (CE); the depth-scale between 1741 and 2003 AD is consistent with Jenk et al. JGR 2009. ## Na sodium, bulk ice, , parts per billion, ,ice cores,,ion chromatopgraphy,C,values below detection limit expressed as