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Metadata Files

Data Publication

Cosmogenic Be-10 and Al-26 data and calculated surface exposure ages for cobbles collected from a moraine adjacent to Mount Murphy, West Antarctica

Nichols, Keir | Roberts, Stephen | Rood, Dylan | Johnson, Joanne | Wilcken, Klaus | Brown, Katie

NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre

(2024)

Descriptions

This dataset consists of measurements of cosmogenic Be-10 and Al-26 in quartz for a set of cobbles collected from a moraine proximal to Mount Murphy, a nunatak located between Pope and Thwaites glaciers, West Antarctica. The cobbles were collected during the 2015-2016 Antarctic field season. The dataset includes cosmogenic nuclide (Be-10 and Al-26) surface exposure ages and all field (location, elevation, shielding, thickness) and analytical laboratory (quartz, beryllium and aluminium carrier masses, Be-10/Be-9 and Al-26/Al-27 ratios) data for field samples and procedural blanks required to calculate the ages. Funding source: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC: Grants NE/S006710/1 (JSJ), NE/K012088/1 (JSJ), NE/S006753/1 (DHR), NE/K011278/1 (DHR)). Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Centre for Accelerator Science award AP12872 (DHR) through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
Samples (cobbles located on the surface of a moraine adjacent to Mount Murphy, West Antarctica) were collected by Dr Stephen J. Roberts (British Antarctic Survey) during the 2015-2016 austral summer. Laboratory chemistry was conducted in the CosmIC Laboratory at Imperial College London. Quartz purification followed the methods of Kohl and Nishiizumi (1992). Isotope dilution chemistry and beryllium and aluminium purification followed the methods of Corbett et al. (2016). Be-10/Be-9 and Al-26/Al-27 ratios were measured by accelerator mass spectrometry at ANSTO using the methods of Wilcken et al. (2017) and normalised to the standard values of Nishiizumi et al. (2007) and Nishiizumi (2004), respectively. Laboratory data were then converted to Be-10 or Al-26 concentrations and, finally, exposure ages using an online exposure age calculator (Balco et al., 2008). Exposure ages were calculated using the default global production rate and two different cosmogenic nuclide scaling methods (known as St (or Stone) and LSDn). The ages were also calculated assuming no erosion, using the Antarctic-specific (ant) elevation/pressure relationship, and the topographic shielding and sample thickness values in sample_information.csv. Samples were collected in the field on 2016-01-07. Be ratios were measured on 2022-10-19 and Al ratios were measured on 2023-6-5.
Quartz purity was tested using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). For isotope dilution chemistry, one procedural blank (beryllium and aluminium carrier processed with no quartz) was processed with each batch of 11 samples. Because the five samples in this dataset were processed across two batches of samples (along with other Antarctic surface samples), there are two procedural blanks in this dataset that are used to correct Be-10 and Al-26 concentrations. Be-10 concentrations were corrected using the mean and standard deviation (SD) of two blanks (Be-9/Be-10 ratios: mean 2.71 x 10-15, SD 3.61 x 10-16, or Be-10 atoms: mean 47410 ± SD 6255). Al-26 concentrations were corrected using the weighted average and standard error of the measured ratios of two blanks as well as two carrier blanks (Al-26/Al-27 ratios: weighted average 7.79 x 10-16, SE 1.54 x 10-16). This weighted average Al-26/Al-27 ratio is used with the mass of carrier used with each quartz sample to calculate the background correction (in number of Al-26 atoms) for each Al-26 concentration. In other words, the blank correction for the Al-26 concentrations scales with the amount of aluminium carrier used. These values range from 34,573 to 43,757 Al-26 atoms and are found in '26Al blank (atoms/sample)' and '26Al blank (atoms/sample) ±' columns of Al_analytical_data_and_ages.csv. Carrier blanks are ~2.5 mg of aluminium carrier precipitated with the two process blanks above, but with no prior steps (quartz dissolution, isotope dilution chemistry). We also processed one aliquot of the laboratory intercomparison material CRONUS A (sample ID STDA050922 in the data tables).
Exposure ages were calculated using version 3 of the online exposure age calculators available at http://hess.ess.washington.edu.

Keywords


Originally assigned keywords
"EARTH SCIENCE","CRYOSPHERE","GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS","GLACIER THICKNESS/ICE SHEET THICKNESS"
"EARTH SCIENCE","CRYOSPHERE","GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS","GLACIERS"
"EARTH SCIENCE","CRYOSPHERE","GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS","ICE SHEETS"
"EARTH SCIENCE","PALEOCLIMATE","LAND RECORDS","ISOTOPES"
"EARTH SCIENCE","SOLID EARTH","GEOCHEMISTRY","GEOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES","ISOTOPES"
Antarctica
Glacial geology
Holocene
Pope Glacier
Surface exposure ages
Thwaites Glacier
West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Corresponding MSL vocabulary keywords
Holocene

MSL enriched keywords
Phanerozoic
Cenozoic
Quaternary
Holocene
minerals
chemical elements
aluminium
silicate minerals
tectosilicates
quartz
measured property
aluminium
beryllium
equipment
atomic emission spectrometer

MSL enriched sub domains i

geochemistry

Source

https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01840

Source publisher

NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre


DOI

10.5285/1efc0048-5f0f-4ae7-a3a6-7728fe2ccf48


Creators

Nichols, Keir

Imperial College London

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9447-9918

Roberts, Stephen

British Antarctic Survey

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3407-9127

Rood, Dylan

Imperial College London

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4425-4702

Johnson, Joanne

British Antarctic Survey

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4537-4447

Wilcken, Klaus

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6870-2047

Brown, Katie

University College London

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0960-4214


Contributors

Nichols, Keir

ContactPerson

Imperial College London

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9447-9918

Nichols, Keir

DataCollector

Imperial College London

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9447-9918

Roberts, Stephen

DataCollector

British Antarctic Survey

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3407-9127

Roberts, Stephen

ProjectLeader

British Antarctic Survey

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3407-9127

Rood, Dylan

DataCollector

Imperial College London

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4425-4702

Rood, Dylan

ProjectMember

Imperial College London

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4425-4702

Johnson, Joanne

DataCollector

British Antarctic Survey

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4537-4447

Johnson, Joanne

ProjectMember

British Antarctic Survey

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4537-4447

Wilcken, Klaus

DataCollector

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6870-2047

Wilcken, Klaus

ProjectMember

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6870-2047

Brown, Katie

DataCollector

University College London

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0960-4214

Brown, Katie

ProjectMember

University College London

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0960-4214

UK Polar Data Centre

DataManager

Natural Environment Research Council

UK Polar Data Centre

Distributor

Natural Environment Research Council

UK Polar Data Centre

HostingInstitution

Natural Environment Research Council


References

10.1016/j.quageo.2007.12.001

10.1016/j.epsl.2016.02.004

10.1016/0016-7037(92)90401-4

10.1016/j.nimb.2004.04.075

10.1016/j.nimb.2007.01.297

10.1016/j.nimb.2017.01.003

10.1029/2024gl110350

10.1029/2024gl110350


Citation

Nichols, K., Roberts, S., Rood, D., Johnson, J., Wilcken, K., & Brown, K. (2024). Cosmogenic Be-10 and Al-26 data and calculated surface exposure ages for cobbles collected from a moraine adjacent to Mount Murphy, West Antarctica (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/1EFC0048-5F0F-4AE7-A3A6-7728FE2CCF48


Dates

Accepted:

2024-04-25

Created:

2024-04-25

Submitted:

2024-04-25

Issued:

2024-05-01


Language

en


Funding References

Funder name: Natural Environment Research Council

Funder identifier: https://ror.org/02b5d8509

Funder identifier type: ROR

Award number: NE/S006710/1

Award uri: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE/S006710/1

Award title: Geological history constraints on the magnitude of grounding line retreat in the Thwaites Glacier system

Funder name: Natural Environment Research Council

Funder identifier: https://ror.org/02b5d8509

Funder identifier type: ROR

Award number: NE/K012088/1

Award uri: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE/K012088/1

Award title: Reconstructing millennial-scale ice sheet change in the western Amundsen Sea Embayment, Antarctica, using high-precision exposure dating.

Funder name: Natural Environment Research Council

Funder identifier: https://ror.org/02b5d8509

Funder identifier type: ROR

Award number: NE/S006753/1

Award uri: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE/S006753/1

Award title: NSFPLR-NERC: Geological history constraints on the magnitude of grounding line retreat in the Thwaites Glacier system

Funder name: Natural Environment Research Council

Funder identifier: https://ror.org/02b5d8509

Funder identifier type: ROR

Award number: NE/K011278/1

Award uri: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE/K011278/1

Award title: Reconstructing millennial-scale ice sheet change in the western AmundsSea Embaymenten , Antarctica, using high-precision exposure dating.


Rights

Open Government Licence V3.0


Datacite version

1.0


Geo location(s)

West Antarctica Antarctica

Mount Murphy Antarctica

Thwaites Glacier Antarctica

Pope Glacier Antarctica

Amundsen Sea Embayment Antarctica


Spatial coordinates