Impurities trapped in ice sheets and glaciers have the potential to provide detailed, high temporal resolution proxy information on paleo-environments, atmospheric circulation, and environmental pollution through the use of chemical, isotopic, and elemental tracers. We present a novel approach to ice-core chemical analyses in which an ice-core melter is coupled directly with both an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and a traditional continuous flow analysis system. We demonstrate this new approach using replicated measurements of ice-core samples from Summit, Greenland. With this method, it is possible to readily obtain continuous, exactly coregistered concentration records for a large number of elements and chemical species at ppb and ppt levels and at unprecedented depth resolution. Such very-high depth resolution, multiparameter measurements will significantly expand the use of ice-core records for environmental proxies.

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ABSTRACT. The Holocene portion of the Siple Dome (Antarctica) ice core was dated by interpreting the electrical, visual and chemical properties of the core. The data were interpreted manually and with a computer algorithm. The algorithm interpretation was adjusted to be consistent with atmospheric methane stratigraphic ties to the GISP2 (Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2) ice core, 10 Be stratigraphic ties to the dendrochronology 14 C record and the dated volcanic stratigraphy. The algorithm interpretation is more consistent and better quantified than the tedious and subjective manual interpretation.

Records of contaminant deposition from ice cores document the impact of changing emissions on remote regions. While variations in Greenland ice core Pb concentrations before and after 1970 have been attributed primarily to leaded gasoline emissions, discontinuous coarse sampling in these studies provided limited temporal resolution. Using a continuous, high‐resolution record of Pb and other trace element concentrations from 1750 to 1998, we show that large, sustained increases in Pb deposition in Greenland occurred >50 years before the introduction of leaded gasoline and that non‐gasoline lead contamination likely accounted for >50% of the cumulative increase in lead deposition and crustal enrichment since industrialization. After 1970, mandated emission reductions led to a >75% decline in annual lead flux, with most of the decline occurring from 1970 to 1985. Additional elemental and isotopic tracers will be needed to provide Pb provenance.