Evidence of Global-Scale As, Mo, Sb, and Tl Atmospheric Pollution in the Antarctic Snow

Abstract

We report the first comprehensive and reliable time series for As, Mo, Sb, and Tl in the snowpack from Dome Fuji in the central East Antarctic Plateau. Our results show significant enrichment of these elements due to either anthropogenic activities or large volcanic eruptions during the past 50 years. With respect to the values reported from 1960 to 1964, we observed the maximum increases in crustal enrichment factors (EFs) for As (a factor of ~15), Mo (~4), Sb (~4), and Tl (~2) during the period between the 1970s and 1990s, reflecting the global dispersion of anthropogenic pollutants of these elements, even to the most remote areas on Earth. Such enrichments are likely related to emissions of trace elements from nonferrous metal smelting and fossil fuel combustion processes in South America, especially in Chile. A drastic decrease in the As concentration and its EF values was observed after the year 2000 in response to the introduction of environmental regulations in the 1990s to reduce As emissions from the copper industry, primarily in Chile. The observed decrease suggests that governmental regulations for pollution control are effective in reducing air pollution at both the regional and global level.

Widespread pollution of the South American atmosphere predates the industrial revolution by 240 y

“…S2); in fact, EFc is among or the highest in the entire ice core record for Ag (7), As (1.5), Bi (2), Cd (30), Cr (8), Cu (20), Mo (800), Pb (5), and Sb (3). In Antarctica, a new phase of concentration enhancements for Ag (7 times), Bi (10 times), Cr (2-4 times) after the mid 1940s (38), Pb (3 times) after A.D. 1950 (7), As (5 times), Mo (2 times), and Sb (3 times) after A.D. 1970 (39) are temporally synchronous with the corresponding increments in the Quelccaya ice core record and consistent with an influence of South American anthropogenic emissions on Antarctica during the 20th century (see, for example, Pb in Fig. 4).…”

Antimony isotopic composition in river waters affected by ancient mining activity

“…As a consequence of Sb mining, smelting, industrial processing and waste disposal, severe enrichments with Sb have been reported in rivers, estuaries, atmospheric aerosols, soils, peat bogs, alpine and polar snow and ice (Byrd 1990;Shotyk et al 1996Shotyk et al , 2004Shotyk et al , 2005Filella et al 2002a;Cloy et al 2005;Krachler et al 2005;He et al 2012;Hiller et al 2012;Hong et al 2012). Freshwater systems are particularly affected by Sb contamination as reflected by the classification of Sb for nearly four decades among pollutants of priority interest in waters by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States and the European Union (USEPA 1984;CEC 1976).…”

Year-round record of dissolved and particulate metals in surface snow at Dome Concordia (East Antarctica)

“…Ikegawa et al, 1999;Dahe et al, 1999;Grotti et al, 2011;Thamban and Thakur, 2013). In addition, the analysis of samples collected from snow pits (Boutron and Patterson, 1983;Planchon et al, 2002a,b;Hong et al, 2002;Hur et al, 2007;Fortner et al, 2011;Hong et al, 2012) provided important time-series or seasonal patterns of trace metal deposition to the snow.…”