*AIMS

Victoria Valley is the northernmost and largest of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, which lie within the Transantarctic Mountains and between the Ross Sea and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Differences in moisture and temperature of air masses originating from either the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, the rocky area of the Dry Valleys or the Ross Sea form a sensitively balanced climate system where they meet in the Victoria Valley. Therefore a climate record of the Victoria/Valley provides an ideal opportunity to study rapid, high frequency climate variations.

During the 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 seasons firn cores and snow pit samples were collected from Victoria Lower Glacier, Baldwin Glacier and Wilson Piedmont Glacier. Their chemical and isotopic signals confirm the climate sensitivity of Victoria Valley, and verify the good preservation of this record in the ice of the surrounding low altitude, coastal glaciers.

During the 2001/2002 field season a 180m core was recovered from Victoria Lower Glacier. The ice was expected to provide a climate record for the last 8,000 to 10,000 years. The site was chosen for its location and for the glaciological characteristics of the site, which were determined with ground penetrating radar and mass balance measurements.

In addition, snow samples were collected from the polar plateau to complete our database along a transect from the coast to the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The comparison of the chemical and isotopic record contained in the snow and firn at sites along this transect will allow us to distinguish between input from local and distant air masses