Abstract:

Oxygen isotope composition of surface snow sampled in the austral summer of 1998/1999 along the traverse route from Zhongshan Station to Dome A, Antarctica is measured with the conventional mass spectrometer technique. The results of measurement show that oxygen isotope composition of surface snow varies in a wide range from -22.51‰ to -50.67‰, and has a tendency that isotopic values gradually decrease with the increases of distance from Zhongshan Station and altitude. The linear regression analyses indicate that there exists good correlation between oxygen isotope composition of surface snow and distance from Zhongshan Station, altitude or latitude, which actually reflects the close relation between stable isotope composition and temperature.