[OANNES Foro] The Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes provides a wealth of information about the sea surface temperature of the water's source that extend back ~1800 years

[Mario Cabrejos]

Published Online April 4 2013
Science 24 May 2013: 
Vol. 340 no. 6135 pp. 945-950 
DOI: 10.1126/science.1234210 

Annually Resolved Ice Core Records of Tropical Climate Variability over the Past ~1800 Years
L. G. Thompson1,2,*, E. Mosley-Thompson1,3, M. E. Davis1, V. S. Zagorodnov1, I. M. Howat1,2, V. N. Mikhalenko4, P.-N. Lin1
1Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. 2School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. 3Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. 4Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Corresponding author. E-mail: thompson.3 en osu.edu

Abstract
Ice cores from low latitudes can provide a wealth of unique information about past climate in the tropics, but they are difficult to recover and few exist. Here, we report annually resolved ice core records from the Quelccaya ice cap (5670 meters above sea level) in Peru that extend back ~1800 years and provide a high-resolution record of climate variability there. Oxygen isotopic ratios (?18O) are linked to sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific, whereas concentrations of ammonium and nitrate document the dominant role played by the migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the region of the tropical Andes. Quelccaya continues to retreat and thin. Radiocarbon dates on wetland plants exposed along its retreating margins indicate that it has not been smaller for at least six millennia. 

Quelccaya Ice Cap
Ice cores drilled in the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are some of the most important sources of information about the paleoclimate of high latitudes. Comparable records from the tropics are rare, however, because there are so few locations at which long-lived, undisturbed ice can be found. Thompson et al. (p. 945, published online 4 April) report results obtained from one of the few such sites, the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes. The annually resolved data, extending back 1800 years, provide a detailed chronicle of changes in the isotopic composition of the oxygen in the ice, which are related to the sea surface temperature of the water's source. Analyses of a collection of major ions such as ammonium and nitrate reveal how atmospheric circulation in the region varied over that period. Finally, the radiocarbon content of ancient plants-recently exposed by the retreat of the ice sheet-reveals that Quelccaya has not been smaller for at least six thousand years. 

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