 |
Edit Item |
Abstract: A study of c-axis orientations in the upper 1500 m of the Dome C deep ice core has been carried out using an automatic ice fabric analyzer (AIFA). 29 vertical and a few horizontal thin sections from different depths in the core have been analyzed. Presentation of the fabric data and resulting parameters is in accordance with new standards developed for automatic ice fabric analyzers. The fabric diagrams display a near-random c-axis orientation distribution in the uppermost parts of the ice sheet. A tendency of c-axis rotation towards a broad single maximum fabric is observed in the lowest part of the studied interval. The fabric development at Dome C thus appears typical for ice-sheet summit and dome sites. The fabric development at Dome C is compared with the fabric evolution of the Dome F and GRIP ice cores. A nearest neighbor correlation analysis reveals little evidence for polygonization while microscopic observations show that subgrain boundaries are present in half of the grains in any depth.