Characterization of Aerosols in the Snows on Styx Glacier, Antarctica

Abstract

Atmospheric aerosols are conservatively archived in polar ice sheets, which can be used to reconstruct past climate conditions in their source regions as well as long-range atmospheric transport patterns. We investigated recent snow chemistry and mineral dust records in the snow pit recovered from Northern Victoria Land in Antarctica. We estimated the age of the snow pit to cover approximately 4 years from 2011 to 2014/2015 based on seasonal variations in δ18O, δD, and major ion values. Here we present the data record for various chemical components such as trace elements from the snow samples using inductively coupled plasma-sector filed mass spectrometry (ICP-SFMS) equipped with Apex sample introduction systems. We observed high crustal enrichment factors (EFs) for the elements As, Bi, Cd, Cu, Mo, Rb, Sb, Tl, and Zn at the depth of 70 ~ 80 cm that are a summer season in 2013. We focus on analysis of chemical compositions of individual particles in the samples to understand the origins of elements using quantitative energy-dispersive electron probe X-ray microanalysis, called low-Z particle EPMA. The complementary information obtained from both ICP-SFMS and low- Z particle EPMA is expected to provide the source of aerosols.