Abstract

A record of regionally significant volcanic eruptions in the North Pacific over the last century has been developed using a glaciochemical record from Eclipse Icefield, Yukon Territory, Canada. Tephrochronology of the Eclipse ice core provides positive identification of the 1907 Ksudach, Kamchatka, the 1912 Katmai, Alaska, the 1947 Hekla, Iceland, and the 1989 Redoubt, Alaska, eruptions. Non-sea-salt SO42− residuals above a robust spline and empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis were used to identify volcanic SO42− signatures. Volcanic sulfate values are more conservatively identified by the EOF analysis as sulfate deposition from other sources is more robustly accounted for. Some eruptions are also recorded as peaks in non-sea-salt chloride. The volcanic signals in the Eclipse ice core are mostly attributable to Alaskan, Aleutian, or Kamchatkan eruptions. Conversely, the Eclipse ice core provides a poor record of globally significant tropical eruptions. These results are promising for the development of longer ice core based records of paleovolcanism in the North Pacific rim.

Department

Earth Sciences, Earth Systems Research Center

Publication Date

1-8-2003

Journal Title

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Publisher

Wiley

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1029/2002JD002449

Document Type

Article

Rights

Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.

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