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Science 24 March 1995:
Vol. 267. no. 5205, pp. 1802 - 1804
DOI: 10.1126/science.267.5205.1802
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Articles

Kinetics of Conversion of Air Bubbles to Air Hydrate Crystals in Antarctic Ice

P. B. Price 1

1 Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

The depth dependence of bubble concentration at pressures above the transition to the air hydrate phase and the optical scattering length due to bubbles in deep ice at the South Pole are modeled with diffusion-growth data from the laboratory, taking into account the dependence of age and temperature on depth in the ice. The model fits the available data on bubbles in cores from Vostok and Byrd and on scattering length in deep ice at the South Pole. It explains why bubbles and air hydrate crystals coexist in deep ice over a range of depths as great as 800 meters and predicts that at depths below sim1400 meters the AMANDA neutrino observatory at the South Pole will operate unimpaired by light scattering from bubbles.

Submitted on October 25, 1994
Accepted on January 20, 1995


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
In situ microbial metabolism as a cause of gas anomalies in ice.
R. A. Rohde, P. B. Price, R. C. Bay, and N. E. Bramall (2008)
PNAS 105, 8667-8672
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)