Ice core record of rising lead pollution in the North Pacific atmosphere

Osterberg, E. C.; Mayewski, Paul Andrew; Kreutz, K. J.; Fisher, David; Handley, Michael; Sneed, Sharon B.; Zdanowicz, Christian; Zheng, Jiahong; Demuth, M. N.; Waskiewicz, M; Bourgeois, J.

doi:10.1029/2007gl032680

Cited by 107 publications

(136 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The cylindrical ice core was cut into five parallel longitudinal samples, each with Ϸ3.3 ϫ Ϸ3.3-cm cross-section (24,25). We used two high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers (HR-ICP-MS) connected in parallel to a continuous ice core-melter system to make repeat measurements of the isotopes 23 Na, 140 Ce, 111 Cd, 205 Tl, and 208 Pb, with only the innermost 10% of the longitudinal samples used for elemental and BC analyses (18,24,25). BC was measured by using a laser-based atmospheric analyzer (18).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coal burning leaves toxic heavy metal legacy in the Arctic

McConnell

Edwards

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

285

259

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Toxic heavy metals emitted by industrial activities in the midlatitudes are transported through the atmosphere and deposited in the polar regions; bioconcentration and biomagnification in the food chain mean that even low levels of atmospheric deposition may threaten human health and Arctic ecosystems. Little is known about sources and long-term trends of most heavy metals before Ϸ1980, when modern measurements began, although heavymetal pollution in the Arctic was widespread during recent decades. Lacking detailed, long-term measurements until now, ecologists, health researchers, and policy makers generally have assumed that contamination was highest during the 1960s and 1970s peak of industrial activity in North America and Europe. We present continuous 1772-2003 monthly and annually averaged deposition records for highly toxic thallium, cadmium, and lead from a Greenland ice core showing that atmospheric deposition was much higher than expected in the early 20th century, with tenfold increases from preindustrial levels by the early 1900s that were two to five times higher than during recent decades. Tracer measurements indicate that coal burning in North America and Europe was the likely source of these metals in the Arctic after 1860. Although these results show that heavy-metal pollution in the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic is substantially lower today than a century ago, contamination of other sectors may be increasing because of the rapid coal-driven growth of Asian economies.cadmium ͉ glaciochemistry ͉ Greenland ͉ lead ͉ thallium

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coal burning leaves toxic heavy metal legacy in the Arctic

McConnell

Edwards

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

285

259

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“…In fact, both the Eclipse and PRC records show a renewed rise in Pb deposition after the mid-1990s. Osterberg et al (2008) contend that the PRC ice-core Pb record reflects increasing industrial emissions and trans-Pacific transport of polluted outflow from the rapidly industrializing sectors of eastern Asia (particularly China), an interpretation supported by the sharply rising pattern of SO 2 emissions from this region (Fig. 6d).…”

Section: Findings From the 2001 -02 Cores: Evidence For Transpacific mentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Logan, based on aluminium (Al) concentrations in snow and firn, showed that crustal elements may be contributed by long-range dust transport as well as by fallout from volcanic eruptions (Matoba and Shiraiwa, 2005). More recently, Osterberg et al (2008) produced an 8000-year-long, high-resolution record of major ions and trace elements from the Mt. Logan PRC core.…”

Section: Long-range Transport Of Asian Desert Dustmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ice Cores from the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, Canada: Their Significance for Climate, Atmospheric Composition and Volcanism in the North Pacific Region

Zdanowicz¹,

Fisher²,

Bourgeois³

et al. 2014

ARCTIC

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ABSTRACT. A major achievement in research supported by the Kluane Lake Research Station was the recovery, in 2001 -02, of a suite of cores from the icefields of the central St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, by teams of researchers from Canada, the United States, and Japan. This project led to the development of parallel, long (10 3 -10 4 year) ice-core records of climate and atmospheric change over an altitudinal range of more than 2 km, from the Eclipse Icefield (3017 m) to the ice-covered plateau of Mt. Logan (5340 m). These efforts built on earlier work recovering single ice cores in this region. Comparison of these records has allowed for variations in climate and atmospheric composition to be linked with changes in the vertical structure and dynamics of the North Pacific atmosphere, providing a unique perspective on these changes over the Holocene. Owing to their privileged location, cores from the St. Elias Icefields also contain a remarkably detailed record of aerosols from various sources around or across the North Pacific. In this paper we review major scientific findings from the study of St. Elias Mountain ice cores, focusing on five main themes: (1) The record of stable water isotopes (δ 18 O, δD), which has unique characteristics that differ from those of Greenland, other Arctic ice cores, and even among sites in the St. Elias; (2) the snow accumulation history; (3) the record of pollen, biomass burning aerosol, and desert dust deposition; (4) the record of long-range air pollutant deposition (sulphate and lead); and (5) the record of paleo-volcanism. Our discussion draws on studies published since 2000, but based on older ice cores from the St. Elias Mountains obtained in 1980 and 1996.

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“…However, neither CC nor LPD techniques provide associated information on particle composition or morphology; broad assumptions of both parameters are thus required to infer ice core dust concentrations from these instruments. Alternate online techniques, such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and ion chromatography (IC), are also routinely used to determine elemental (e.g., Cd, Ce, Zn, Pb) and soluble ion (e.g., Na + , SO 2− 4 , NH + 4 ) concentrations in ice cores, providing independent indices of past dustiness (e.g., Rhodes et al, 2011), and anthropogenic particle emissions (e.g., Osterberg et al, 2008;McConnell and Edwards, 2008). Albeit analytically precise, ICP-MS and IC rely on techniques that analyze only a portion of aerosols in an aqueous suspension/solution and not the properties of the progenitor aerosols themselves, i.e., particulate morphology or size.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real-time analysis of insoluble particles in glacial ice using single-particle mass spectrometry

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Insoluble aerosol particles trapped in glacial ice provide insight into past climates, but analysis requires information on climatically relevant particle properties, such as size, abundance, and internal mixing. We present a new analytical method using a time-of-flight single-particle mass spectrometer (SPMS) to determine the composition and size of insoluble particles in glacial ice over an aerodynamic size range of ∼ 0.2-3.0 µm diameter. Using samples from two Greenland ice cores, we developed a procedure to nebulize insoluble particles suspended in melted ice, evaporate condensed liquid from those particles, and transport them to the SPMS for analysis. We further determined size-dependent extraction and instrument transmission efficiencies to investigate the feasibility of determining particle-class-specific mass concentrations. We find SPMS can be used to provide constraints on the aerodynamic size, composition, and relative abundance of most insoluble particulate classes in ice core samples. We describe the importance of post-aqueous processing to particles, a process which occurs due to nebulization of aerosols from an aqueous suspension of originally soluble and insoluble aerosol components. This study represents an initial attempt to use SPMS as an emerging technique for the study of insoluble particulates in ice cores.

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Ice core record of rising lead pollution in the North Pacific atmosphere

Cited by 107 publications

References 24 publications

Coal burning leaves toxic heavy metal legacy in the Arctic

Coal burning leaves toxic heavy metal legacy in the Arctic

Ice Cores from the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, Canada: Their Significance for Climate, Atmospheric Composition and Volcanism in the North Pacific Region

Real-time analysis of insoluble particles in glacial ice using single-particle mass spectrometry

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