Natural concentrations of lead in ancient Arctic and Antarctic ice

• Published in: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
• Main Authors: Ng, Amy, Patterson, Clair
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 1981
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; Byrd; Byrd Station; Greenland; Lorius; Antarc*; Antarctica; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(81)90064-8

Concentrations of Pb and K were determined in a series of veneer layers chiseled in sequence from the outside toward the center of each of the five 1500–5500yr old ice core sections that had been drilled in Greenland and Antarctic ice. They were analogs of very old ice samples analyzed earlier by Herronet al. (1977) and Craginet al. (1975), who reported high concentrations of Pb in them. Lead contamination, existing at exterior concentrations of about 10^6 ng/kg ice, had intruded to the centers of the cores, establishing interior values of at least 1.4 ng/kg ice in three electromechanically drilled Camp Century core sections taken from fluid filled drill holes. Corresponding Pb concentration changes were 3 × 10^4 ng/kg ice to 1.2 ng/kg ice in two thermally drilled New Byrd Station core sections taken from non-fluid filled drill holes. Contamination made the lowest center concentrations serve only as upper limits to the original concentrations of Pb in the ice. Potassium concentrations decreased from exterior values of about 5 × 10^5 ng/kg ice to an interior value of 2 × 10^3 ng/kg ice in the Camp Century core sections and from 8 × 10^4 ng/kg ice to 9 × 10^2 ng/kg ice in New Byrd Station core sections. Potassium contamination effects were not large within the central portions of the cores. These data verify earlier findings by Murozumiet al. (1969) and extend to a broader geographical significance the general validity of their observation of a ~ 300-fold increase of Pb concentrations in the Greenland ice sheet during the past 3000 yr. Our findings refute claims by Herronet al. (1977) and Craguinet al. (1975) that 100-fold excesses of natural Pb exist in 800 yr old Greenland ice above levels contributed by silicate dusts. Our new data also show that average Pb concentrations of 26 ng Pb/kg ice, claimed by Boutron and Lorius (1979) to be natural and present for 60 yr in snow strata in Antarctica, did not exist in old Antarctic ice, and that Pb concentrations have increased at least 10-fold in that ice during ...