ALBERT

Description: The data collection "Deep Drilling of Glaciers: Soviet-Russian projects in Arctic, 1975-1995" was collected by the following basic considerations: - compilation of deep (〉100 m) drilling projects on Arctic glaciers, using data of (a) publications; (b) archives of IGRAN; (c) personal communication of project participants; - documentation of parameters, references. Accuracy of data and techniques applied to determine different parameters are not evaluated. The accuracy of some geochemical parameters (up to 1984 and heavy metalls) is uncertain. Most reconstructions of ice core age and of annual layer thickness are discussed; - digitizing of published diagrams (in case, when original numerical data were lost) and subsequent data conversion to equal range series and adjustment to the common units. Therefore, the equal-range series were calculated from original data or converted from digitized chart values as indicated in the metadata. For the methodological purpose, the equal-range series obtained from original and reconstructed data were compared repeatedly; the systematic difference was less then 5-7%. Special attention should be given to the fact, that the data for individual ice core parameters varies, because some parameters were originally measured or registered. Parameters were converted in equal-range series using 2 m steps; - two or more parameter values were determined, then the mean-weighted (i.e. accounting the sample length) value is assigned to the entire interval; - one parameter value was determined, measured or registered independently from the parameter values in depth intervals which over- and underlie it, then the value is assigned to the entire interval; - one parameter value was determined, measured or registered for two adjoining depth intervals, then the specific value is assigned to the depth interval, which represents 〉75% of sample length ; if each of adjoining depth intervals represents 〈75% of sample length, then the correspondent parameter value is assigned to both intervals of depth. This collection of ice core data (version 2000) was made available through the EU funded QUEEN project by S.M. Arkhipov, Moscow.

Description: Combined geodetic, geophysical and glaciological in situ measurements are interpreted regarding surface height changes over subglacial Lake Vostok and the local mass balance of the ice sheet at Vostok station. Repeated GPS observations spanning 5 years and long-term surface accumulation data show that the height of the lake surface has not changed over the observation period. The application of the mass conservation equation to purely observational data yields an ice mass balance for Vostok station close to equilibrium.

Description: The distribution of temperature and salinity, current velocities, suspended particulate matter, bottom sediments, bottom morphology, and planktonic and benthic organisms during the summer period are studied in the estuary of the large Onega River and coastal areas of the Onega Bay (White Sea) influenced by interacting marine and riverine factors.

Description: The combined micropaleontological (spores and pollen, diatoms, benthic foraminifers), lithologic, and isotopic-geochemical analysis of sediments from the northern shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk recovered by hydrostatic corer from the depth of 140 mbsl elucidated environmental changes in this part of the basin and adjacent land areas during the last 12.7 thousands cal. years. Geochronological scale of the core is established using the acceleration mass-spectrometry method for radiocarbon dating of benthic Foraminifera tests. The first insignificant warming in the northern part of the sea after glaciation occurred in the mid-Boreal time (9.6 ka ago) but not at the onset of the Holocene. The strongest warming in the region took place in the mid-Atlantic epoch to reach climatic optimum in the second half of the Subboreal (6 to 2.5 ka ago). A cooling in the northern shelf and adjacent land areas is established at the beginning of the Subatlantic (2.5 ka). A comparison of results obtained for Core 89211 with dated hydrological and climatic changes in central and southern parts of the Sea of Okhotsk (Gorbarenko et al., 2003, 2004) is used for a high-resolution analysis of climatic fluctuations in the study region and other areas of the basin during deglaciation and the Holocene.