Particulate Matter in Antarctic Snow
Dust particles > 1 μm have been settled out of 71·4 kg of meltwater from a 30-year-old site at the base of the ice cliff at Halley Bay. The snow was returned in frozen blocks and sampling the interior of these blocks under clean room conditions gave about 1 μg of 1–4 μm particles which are judged...
| Published in: | Geophysical Journal International |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
1972
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://gji.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/27/1/15 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1972.tb02343.x |
| Summary: | Dust particles > 1 μm have been settled out of 71·4 kg of meltwater from a 30-year-old site at the base of the ice cliff at Halley Bay. The snow was returned in frozen blocks and sampling the interior of these blocks under clean room conditions gave about 1 μg of 1–4 μm particles which are judged to be clay mineral naturally present in the snow. About 0·8 mg of sticky white organic matter, several dozen 100 μm particles of geothite and haematite ‘paint’ flakes and quartz were also found. These are believed to be contaminants. The concentration of clay mineral is about 1·4 × 10−11 gg−1 snow and the dust load in Antarctic air is about 2·2 × 10−5 μg m −3 air. No black magnetic spherules were seen and nothing from outer space was recognized. The high nickel ‘dissolved’ in polar snow seems definitely extra-terrestrial, but the other elements may be land derived via Aitken nuclei of order 100 per cm3 air, the global background. |
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