Isotopic composition of snow samples from Northern Victoria Land, (Antarctica) and correlations with the geographical factors

Abstract

During the 1989-90 and 1994.95 Italian expeditions to Antarctica, two sets of fresh surface snow samples were collected in order to analyse their isotope composition and correlation with geographical factors, such as elevation and distance from the coast. A linear relationship between δ¹⁸O and δD was found yielding a high correlation coefficient. Mean vertical isotopic gradients of -0.6%/100m and -0.5%/100m were obtained for δ¹⁸O from the two different sets, whereas the δD/elevation gradients were 4.7%/100m and -3.5%/100m, respectively. The correlation coefficients between isotopic composition of snowfall and elevation were higher (R2 from 0.42 to 0.81) than those between isotopic composition and distance from the coast. The correlation between deuterium excess and distance from the coast was very weak with higher values moving inland, probably owing to the rather complicated morphology of the area.