Distribution and fall-out of 13 7 Cs and other radionuclides over Antarctica

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Pourchet, M., Bartarya, S., Maignan, M., Jouzel, J., Pinglot, J., Aristarain, A.J., Furdada, G., Kotlyakov, V., Mosley-Thompson, E., Preiss, N., Young, N.W.
• Other Authors: Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Lausanne = University of Lausanne (UNIL), Laboratoire de Modélisation du Climat et de l'Environnement (LMCE), Centro Regional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnologicas Mendoza (CRICYT), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Buenos Aires (CONICET)-Universidad Nacional de Cuyo Mendoza (UNCUYO), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Institute of Geography of RAS, Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow (RAS), The Ohio State University Columbus (OSU), University of Tasmania Hobart (UTAS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 1997
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; [SDU.STU.GC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geochemistry; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03335021; https://hal.science/hal-03335021v1/document; https://hal.science/hal-03335021v1/file/jg1997Pourchet435.pdf; https://doi.org/10.3189/S0022143000035024

International audience Abstract This article aims to give a comprehensive view of the distribution patterns for natural and artifical radionuclides over Antarctica. We focus this study on 137 Cs, 210 Pb and tritium. Applying various statistical methods, we show that the deposition of radionuclides reveals a structured distribution, although local drift redistribution and the snow-surface roughness disturb the representativeness of samples and produce a “noise” effect. The deposition of 137 Cs over Antarctica (885 TBq) represents 0.09% of the total deposition of this radionuclide in the world and the correlation between 137 Cs fluxes and accumulation shows two sub-populations. For the stations with a mean annual temperature above −21° C, a strong correlation is found, whereas the correlation is lower for locations with temperatures below −21° C. The flux of 210 Pb varies from 0.9 to 8.2 Bq m −1 a − 1 with values strongly correlated with the accumulation and a well-defined spatial structure. The same mechanism governs the deposition of artificial and natural tritium but it clearly differs from that of other radionuclides associated with particulate material. The “dry fall-out” accounts for between 60 and 80% of the total fall-out for the artificial radionuclides and around 40% for 210 Pb. This difference is likely related to a tropospheric fraction for 210 Pb. Despite its isolated location, the radioactive fall-out of artificial long-lived radionuclides over Antarctica has been ten times greater than for natural radionuclides.