Abstract
Trends in the annual flux of sulfate and nitrate in a new ice core collected at an elevation of 3017 m on Eclipse Icefield, 45 km northeast of Mt. Logan were examined to determine the effect of anthropogenic activity on precipitation chemistry in the remote northwest North America mid-troposphere. The annual flux of both sulfate and nitrate at Eclipse began increasing in the 1940s, demonstrating, for the first time, the anthropogenic sulfate and nitrate pollution of the northwest North American Arctic in an ice core from this region. Comparison of the Eclipse record with regional emission estimates for total sulfur and nitrogen oxides suggests that Eurasia is the dominant source of pollutants reaching Eclipse. The available data does not permit a confident assessment of the relative importance of European versus Soviet emissions in producing the observed trends in sulfate and nitrate at Eclipse.
Department
Earth Sciences, Earth Systems Research Center
Publication Date
12-2001
Journal Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
Wiley
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1029/2001GL013037
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
K. Yalcin and C. P. Wake, "Anthropogenic signals recorded in an ice core from eclipse Icefield, Yukon territory, Canada," Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 28, no. 23, pp. 4487–4490, Dec. 2001.
Rights
Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union.