| An ice core was drilled at Taylor Dome, East Antarctica, reaching to bedrock at 554 meters. Oxygen-isotope measurements reveal climatic fluctuations through the last interglacial period. To facilitate comparison of the Taylor Dome paleoclimate record with geologic data and results from other deep ice cores, several glaciological issues need to be addressed. In particular, accumulation data are necessary as input for numerical ice-flow-models, for determining the flux of chemical constituents from measured concentrations, and for calculation of the offset in age between ice and trapped air in the core.; The analysis of cosmogenic beryllium-10 provides a geochemical method for constraining the accumulation-rate history at Taylor Dome. High-resolution measurements were made in shallow firn cores and snow pits to determine the relationship among beryllium-10 concentrations, wet and dry deposition mechanisms, and snow-accumulation rates. Comparison between theoretical and measured variations in deposition over the last 75 years constrains the relationship between beryllium-10 deposition and global average production rates. The results indicate that variations in geomagnetically-modulated production-rate do not strongly influence beryllium-10 deposition at Taylor Dome. Although solar modulation of production rate is important for time scales of years to centuries, snow-accumulation rate is the dominant control on ice-core beryllium-10 concentrations for longer periods.; A continuous profile of beryllium-10 obtained for the 554-meter core is used to establish an accumulation-rate history at Taylor Dome, taking into account remaining uncertainties in production rates, deposition mechanisms, and atmospheric mixing processes. A preliminary interpretation of the accumulation-rate record indicates that climate conditions at Taylor Dome are strongly influenced by conditions in the Ross Sea, particularly the configuration of the Ross Ice Shelf. These results show that the Taylor Dome core can be used to provide new constraints on regional climate over the last 130,000 years, complementing the terrestrial and marine geologic record from the Dry Valleys, Transantarctic Mountains and western Ross Sea. |
