Greenland Snow Pit Stratigraphy Data from 1952-1955 Traverses

Carl S. Benson's scientific field notebooks document snow pit and core data from traverses of Northwest Greenland from 1952 to 1955. The collection includes measurements from 146 snow pits and 288 supplementary hardness profiles, recording temperature, density, ram hardness, grain size, and stratigraphy. A supplementary compendium compiled in 1986 extends the snow accumulation record from 1911 to 1981.

Use Cases

• Analyzing snow density and hardness profiles from the 288 ramsonde measurements to understand snowpack densification.
• Studying stratigraphy and temperature data from the 146 documented snow pits to reconstruct historical ice sheet facies.
• Using the 1986 compendium's snow accumulation data (1911-1981) to calibrate longer-term climate models.
• Mapping pit location data from the traverse summary matrix to analyze spatial variability in snow properties across Northwest Greenland.

Strengths

• Contains detailed ground measurements from 146 snow pits and 288 ram hardness profiles along a 1100-mile traverse.
• Includes a supplementary, digitally formatted compendium extending temporal coverage from 1911 to 1981.
• Provides specific measurements for each pit including temperature, density, ram hardness, grain size, and descriptive stratigraphy.

Limitations

• The 1955 field notebooks were noted as not digitized as of January 2013, creating a potential data gap.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, reporting both 1981-12-31 and 2026-03 13.
• Primary data is in scanned PDF and ASCII text formats, requiring extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Carl S. Benson and the NSIDC.

Collection Method

Field measurements from snow pits and ramsonde hardness profiles collected during traverses, later compiled and scanned.

Time Range

1911 to 1981 (with core fieldwork from 1952 to 1955).

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:39:15.523075

Geography

Northwest Greenland, along a 1100-mile traverse.