Radioactive fallouts as temporal makers for glacier ice cores dating

M. Clemenza; G. Cucciati; V. Maggi; L. Pattavina; E. Previtali

doi:10.1140/epjp/i2012-12068-0

EPJ

Radioactive fallouts as temporal makers for glacier ice cores dating

M. Clemenza¹^,2, G. Cucciati¹^,2, V. Maggi³, L. Pattavina¹^,2 and E. Previtali¹^,2^*

¹ Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica “G. Occhialini”, Milano-Bicocca, Italy
² INFN, Sezione di Milano-Bicocca, Milano-Bicocca, Italy
³ Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Ambiente e del Territorio, Milano-Bicocca, Italy

Received: 12 November 2011
Accepted: 13 June 2012
Published online: 27 June 2012

Abstract

In this paper, we intend to show how analytical methods used in nuclear physics, as gamma spectroscopy, are powerful tools for the dating of environmental archives. Specifically, we will show how events related to the release in the environment of great amount of radioactive isotopes (e.g., atmospheric nuclear test explosions) can be used as temporal markers in alpine glaciers. The radio-isotope selected for the dating of ice carrots is ¹³⁷Cs , because of its chemical and nuclear properties. The radioactive measurements have been conducted using a low-background high-purity germanium detector. The sensitivity for the prepared samples is 10mBq/kg. We will illustrate how dating curves (date versus depth of the sample) can be considered as an absolute calibrator for all the other chemical dating methods used on glacier samples analyses.