Abstract
One of the characteristic features of polar glacier ice is the abundance of air bubbles1–3. With increasing depth from the surface of the ice sheet, the size of the bubbles generally decreases in response to the change of overburden pressure. Below a certain depth, the bubbles start to shrink faster than expected and finally become invisible. Although not visible to the naked eye, unit mass of the bubble-free (clear) ice includes almost the same volume of air as unit mass of bubbly ice4,5. It is hypothesized that the air exists in the ice structure probably in the form of clathrate hydrates as suggested by Miller6,7 but until now the location of the air has been unknown. Direct observations of air hydrate inclusions were carried out for the first time in fresh ice cores from Dye-3, Greenland. When the ice structure surrounding air hydrate was melted, an explosive transition occurred releasing a gas bubble into the melt cavity.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Langway, C. C. Jr in Physics of the Movement of the Ice, 336–349 (IAHS Publ. 47, 1958).
Langway, C. C. Jr in Variation of the Regime of Existing Glaciers, 101–118 (IASH Publ. 58, 1962).
Langway, C. C. Jr USACRREL Res. Rep. No. 77 (1967).
Gow, A. J. in Int. Symp. on Antarctic Glaciological Exploration, 78–90 (IAHS Publ. 86, 1970).
Gow, A. J. J. geophys. Res. 76, 2533–2541 (1971).
Miller, S. L. Science 165, 489–490 (1969).
Miller, S. L. in Physics and Chemistry of Ice (eds Whalley, E. et al.) 42–50 (Royal Society of Canada, 1973).
Nakaya, U. USASIPRE Res. Rep. No. 13 (1956).
Jones, S. J. & Johari, G. P. in Isotopes and Impurities in Snow and Ice, 23–28 (IAHS Publ. 118, 1977).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shoji, H., Langway, C. Air hydrate inclusions in fresh ice core. Nature 298, 548–550 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/298548a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/298548a0
This article is cited by
-
Novel results on structural investigations of natural minerals of clathrate hydrates
Applied Physics A (2004)
-
The crystallographic structure of the natural air-hydrate in Greenland dye-3 deep ice core
Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Molecular Recognition in Chemistry (1990)
-
Structure of oxygen clathrate hydrate by neutron powder diffraction
Journal of Inclusion Phenomena (1986)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.