@article {2539,
	title = {Age of the Mt.~Ortles ice cores, the Tyrolean Iceman and glaciation of the highest summit of South Tyrol since the Northern Hemisphere Climatic Optimum},
	journal = {The Cryosphere},
	volume = {10},
	year = {2016},
	month = {Jan-01-2016},
	pages = {2779 - 2797},
	abstract = {In  2011  four  ice  cores  were  extracted  from  the summit of Alto dell{\textquoteright}Ortles (3859 m), the highest glacier of South  Tyrol  in  the  Italian  Alps.  This  drilling  site  is  located only 37 km southwest from where the Tyrolean Iceman, \~{}5.3 kyrs old, was discovered emerging from the ablating ice field of Tisenjoch (3210 m, near the Italian{\textendash}Austrian border) in 1991. The excellent preservation of this mummy suggested that the Tyrolean Iceman was continuously embedded in prehistoric ice and that additional ancient ice was likely
preserved elsewhere in South Tyrol. Dating of the ice cores from Alto dell{\textquoteright}Ortles based on 210Pb, tritium, beta activity and 14C determinations, combined with an empirical model (COPRA), provides evidence for a chronologically ordered ice  stratigraphy  from  the  modern  glacier  surface  down  to the  bottom  ice  layers  with  an  age  of \~{}7 kyrs,  which  confirms  the  hypothesis.  Our  results  indicate  that  the  drilling site has continuously been glaciated on frozen bedrock since \~{}7 kyrs BP. Absence of older ice on the highest glacier of South Tyrol is consistent with the removal of basal ice from bedrock during the Northern Hemisphere Climatic Optimum (6{\textendash}9 kyrs BP),  the  warmest  interval  in  the  European  Alps during the Holocene. Borehole inclinometric measurements of  the  current  glacier  flow  combined  with  surface  ground penetration radar (GPR) measurements indicate that, due to the sustained atmospheric warming since the 1980s, an acceleration of the glacier Alto dell{\textquoteright}Ortles flow has just recently begun.  Given  the  stratigraphic chronological  continuity  of the Mt. Ortles cores over millennia, it can be argued that this behaviour has been unprecedented at this location since the Northern Hemisphere Climatic Optimum.},
	doi = {10.5194/tc-10-2779-2016},
	url = {http://www.the-cryosphere.net/10/2779/2016/tc-10-2779-2016.pdf},
	author = {Gabrielli, Paolo and Barbante, Carlo and Bertagna, Giuliano and {\'o}, Michele and Binder, Daniel and Carton, Alberto and Carturan, Luca and Cazorzi, Federico and Cozzi, Giulio and Dalla Fontana, Giancarlo and Davis, Mary and De Blasi, Fabrizio and Dinale, Roberto and {\`a}, Gianfranco and Dreossi, Giuliano and Festi, Daniela and Frezzotti, Massimo and Gabrieli, Jacopo and Galos, Stephan P. and Ginot, Patrick and Heidenwolf, Petra and Jenk, Theo M. and Kehrwald, Natalie and Kenny, Donald and Magand, Olivier and Mair, Volkmar and Mikhalenko, Vladimir and Lin, Ping Nan and Oeggl, Klaus and Piffer, Gianni and Rinaldi, Mirko and Schotterer, Ulrich and Schwikowski, Margit and Seppi, Roberto and Spolaor, Andrea and Stenni, Barbara and Tonidandel, David and Uglietti, Chiara and Zagorodnov, Victor and Zanoner, Thomas and Zennaro, Piero}
}
