Technology of nondestructive light gas extraction from ice tested on samples from a bore hole above Vostok Lake

Abstract

Nondestructive technology has been developed for the extraction of light gases dissolved in ice. The technology has been tested on samples of atmospheric and congealed ice of the 5-G3 bore hole of the Vostok station (East Antarctica) extracted from depths of 3457–3698 m. Down to 3539 m, ice is of an atmospheric origin, while ice deposited deeper is formed by natural water of Vostok Lake frozen on the glacier. Light gases were extracted into samplers (glass flasks) in the course of the 3-day degassing of samples freshly elevated from a bore hole. The samples were analyzed on the FT-1 time-of-flight mass spectrometer 6 months after sampling. Measurements reveal the presence of amounts of helium as well as molecular hydrogen considerably exceeding the atmospheric values. Measured values of gas ratio H²/⁴He = 5.4 ± 1.9 in the samples from depths of 3596–3698 m exceed the atmospheric values by more than an order of magnitude.