Electrolytic conductivity of snow and glacier ice from Antarctica and Greenland

Conductivity measurements have been made on snow and ice samples from pits and deep drill holes at a number of localities in Antarctica and Greenland. Data were obtained from deep cores representing more than 1900 years of continuous snow accumulation at Byrd Station, Antarctica, and more than 400 years deposition at Inge Lehmann, Greenland. Measurements of freshly precipitated snow from a single coastal location in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, also yielded conductivities. The substantial increase observed in the conductivity of core samples from near the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf at Little America 5 can be attributed most probably to windborne salts of marine origin that had accumulated on the surface after the snow was deposited.