ABSTRACT
The successful interpretation of high altitude mountain fim and ice cores as a source of paleoclimatic data depends very strongly on a knowledge of (1) the physical and meteorological characteristics of the site, (2) the history of the water vapor-condensate arriving at that location, and (3) the history of subsequent processes of evaporation, sublimation and snow scour occurring there. Some specific core site problems are discussed by Dansgaard (1964) Gow (1965) Giovinetto and Schwerdtfeger (1966) Dansgaard et al. (1973) Moser and Stichler (1974) Reeh et al. (1978) Whillans (1978) Fisher et al. (1983) and Grootes et al. (1989). Although these are mostly discussed in the context of ice sheets or caps, all are applicable to high mountain sites. Several processes may accordingly influence the quality and amount of information that is stored in an ice core.
