Contaminant Records in Ice Cores

Abstract

Ice cores extracted in polar regions and in high altitude glaciers at low and mid latitudes are important recorders of global to regional changes in climate, ecosystems and human activities (e.g. industry, mining, transport). All of the con- taminants found in ice cores are transported through the atmosphere, with the trans- port mechanism and atmospheric lifetime of these contaminants determining their spatial extent. In this chapter, we consider such ice core impurities as lead, mercury, platinum group elements, other trace elements, black carbon, organic and radioac- tive species. These contaminants are evaluated over the past few centuries, from the pre-industrial period through the Industrial Revolution and up to the most recent years of atmospheric monitoring, pollutant moratoria and/or abatement technolo- gies. Contamination by most of these compounds is widespread from the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere down to the remotest locations of Antarctica, suggesting that today there are no glaciers on Earth where atmospheric depositions of anthropogenic origin cannot be detected.