Brief communication: Identification of 140,000-year-old blue ice in Grove Mountains, East Antarctica, by krypton-81 dating.

The presence of exceptionally old ice and the relative ease of access make Antarctic blue ice areas (BIAs) attractive paleoclimate archives. However, only a handful of BIAs, mostly situated in West Antarctica and along the Trans-Antarctic Mountains, have been investigated for this purpose. Here, we present the age of surface ice from the Grove Mountains BIA in Elizabeth Princess Land, East Antarctica, determined by measuring ⁸¹Kr in the trapped air. Two samples yield an average age of 143⁺³³_-29 kyr. Together with the reported terrestrial age of a chondrite, we conclude that Grove Mountains BIA holds considerable potentials for paleoclimate studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]