Stable isotope records from Larsen-C Ice Shelf ice cores to constrain ice shelf growth models

The Larsen Ice Shelf system is hypothesized to be an important indicator of the stability of Antarctic continental ice as the Antarctic continent warms. With large air temperature increases of up to 3°C since 1950, the Antarctic Peninsula has seen rapid changes. These include the apparently spontaneous collapse of ice shelves in the last 20 years and other, potentially related, changes affecting the remaining ice masses. To study the recent changes to the ice mass directly affecting the Antarctic Peninsula, 30-meter deep ice cores collected at three spatially far removed locations across the Larsen-C Ice shelf have been analyzed for stable oxygen and hydrogen isotope composition. Trends and cycles in these data are used to determine accumulation rate, to reconstruct temperature records and to provide records of deuterium excess variability. These data can be used to constrain ice shelf growth models. Ice temperature records over the last several decades are sparse across the Larsen-C Ice shelf, thus the data here presented represent a significant contribution to ice dynamics modeling and measurement.