Long-term record of H2O2 in polar ice cores

At Dye 3 and Camp Century, Greenland, and at Byrd Station, West-Antarctica, ice cores were drilled to bedrock. They offer an archive of solid precipitation over the last 50,000 to 100,000 years. H₂O₂ has been found to be one of the dominant trace components in the ice. We present a survey of the H₂O₂ levels in the three deep cores. In the Greenland ice cores the H₂O₂ level decreases with increasing depth and is extremely low during the last glaciation. In the Byrd core an H₂O₂ concentration spike is observed in the time period 6000 to 12,000 years before present. Possible explanations for the decreasing trend with age and depth and the drop during the Ice Age are discussed.