• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Greenland; Sion; ice core
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.470.511; http://epic.awi.de/2543/1/Rei8888a.pdf

Abstract A new method for the detection of trace ele-ments in polar ice cores using laser ablation with subse-quent inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analy-sis is described. To enable direct analysis of frozen ice samples a special laser ablation chamber was constructed. Direct analysis reduces the risk of contamination. The de-fined removal of material from the ice surface by means of a laser beam leads to higher spatial resolution (300– 1000 µm) in comparison to investigations with molten ice samples. This is helpful for the detection of element sig-natures in annual layers of ice cores. The method was ap-plied to the successful determination of traces for the ele-ments Mg, Al, Fe, Zn, Cd, Pb, some rare-earth elements (REE) and minor constituents such as Ca and Na in ice cores. These selected elements serve as tracer elements for certain sources and their element signatures detected in polar ice cores can give hints to climate changes in the past. We report results from measurements of frozen ice sam-ples, the achievable signal intensities, standard deviations and calibration graphs as well as the first signal progres-sion of 208Pb in an 8,000-year-old ice core sample from Greenland. In addition, the first picture of a crater on an ice surface burnt by an IR laser made by cryogenic scanning electron microscopy is presented.