The photo above is a picture of our first visible volcanic ash layer in the SPICE core. We noticed this layer at around 306.5 meters and we're quite excited to finally see something in the ice! After some researching, we discovered that this volcanic event occurred around 3,200 - 3,500 years ago and was from a volcano in the Southern Sandwich Islands. Scientists can trace back volcanic events by analyzing the chemical species and rock types found in the ash layers in ice cores and using it like DNA for the volcano. They then travel to different volcanoes around the world and analyze the chemical species of the rocks of many volcanoes and then try to match which volcano is repsonsible for a given ash layer in an ice core by
AuthorMindy Nicewonger, PhD is an earth and climate scientist. She is a passionate science educator and tutor. Banner photo: Mindy standing in front of the C-130 Hercules in McMurdo, Antarctica (Nov. 2014).
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April 2018
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