Quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica
Many soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV), Antarctica, being old, hyperarid, and frigid, have accumulated abundant atmospheric salts over the last several million years. This salt repository offers an opportunity to study atmospheric chemistry (past and present), the origin and transport of ions i...
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ftlouisianastuir:oai:digitalcommons.lsu.edu:geo_pubs-1082 2023-06-11T04:07:14+02:00 Quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica Bao, Huiming Marchant, David R. 2006-08-27T07:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geo_pubs/83 https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006669 https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/context/geo_pubs/article/1082/viewcontent/83.pdf unknown LSU Digital Commons https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geo_pubs/83 doi:10.1029/2005JD006669 https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/context/geo_pubs/article/1082/viewcontent/83.pdf Faculty Publications text 2006 ftlouisianastuir https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006669 2023-05-28T18:24:10Z Many soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV), Antarctica, being old, hyperarid, and frigid, have accumulated abundant atmospheric salts over the last several million years. This salt repository offers an opportunity to study atmospheric chemistry (past and present), the origin and transport of ions in soils, the weathering activity of soils, and postdepositional soil-leaching processes within this unique environment. In particular, soil sulfate in the MDV is known to have multiple origins, but the precise proportions of different sulfate components remain elusive. Here we test a hypothesis that soil sulfate in the MDV is a predictable mixture of three major components: sea-salt sulfate, non-sea-salt sulfate, and background sulfate (derived from weathering and volcanic sources) that to a large extent, varies as a function of elevation and distance from the coast. By measuring sulfate's three stable isotope parameters, i.e., Δ17O, δ18O, and δ34S, plus estimating independently the end-member stable isotope parameters for the three components on the basis of published reports and our measured data, we solve explicitly the mixing proportion for each component using a set of three simultaneous linear equations. The results from four spatially representative soil profiles show that the sum of such calculated proportions for the three components is very close to unity in most samples, suggesting that a simple three-component mixing model is a good representation of the soil sulfate budget. While significant uncertainties still exist in the isotope compositions of different sulfate end-members, these data provide important initial constraints on sulfate diversity as well as its spatial and vertical distribution in the MDV. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union. Text Antarc* Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys LSU Digital Commons (Louisiana State University) McMurdo Dry Valleys Journal of Geophysical Research 111 D16 |
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LSU Digital Commons (Louisiana State University) |
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description |
Many soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV), Antarctica, being old, hyperarid, and frigid, have accumulated abundant atmospheric salts over the last several million years. This salt repository offers an opportunity to study atmospheric chemistry (past and present), the origin and transport of ions in soils, the weathering activity of soils, and postdepositional soil-leaching processes within this unique environment. In particular, soil sulfate in the MDV is known to have multiple origins, but the precise proportions of different sulfate components remain elusive. Here we test a hypothesis that soil sulfate in the MDV is a predictable mixture of three major components: sea-salt sulfate, non-sea-salt sulfate, and background sulfate (derived from weathering and volcanic sources) that to a large extent, varies as a function of elevation and distance from the coast. By measuring sulfate's three stable isotope parameters, i.e., Δ17O, δ18O, and δ34S, plus estimating independently the end-member stable isotope parameters for the three components on the basis of published reports and our measured data, we solve explicitly the mixing proportion for each component using a set of three simultaneous linear equations. The results from four spatially representative soil profiles show that the sum of such calculated proportions for the three components is very close to unity in most samples, suggesting that a simple three-component mixing model is a good representation of the soil sulfate budget. While significant uncertainties still exist in the isotope compositions of different sulfate end-members, these data provide important initial constraints on sulfate diversity as well as its spatial and vertical distribution in the MDV. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union. |
format |
Text |
author |
Bao, Huiming Marchant, David R. |
spellingShingle |
Bao, Huiming Marchant, David R. Quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica |
author_facet |
Bao, Huiming Marchant, David R. |
author_sort |
Bao, Huiming |
title |
Quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica |
title_short |
Quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica |
title_full |
Quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica |
title_sort |
quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the mcmurdo dry valleys, antarctica |
publisher |
LSU Digital Commons |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geo_pubs/83 https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006669 https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/context/geo_pubs/article/1082/viewcontent/83.pdf |
geographic |
McMurdo Dry Valleys |
geographic_facet |
McMurdo Dry Valleys |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys |
op_source |
Faculty Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geo_pubs/83 doi:10.1029/2005JD006669 https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/context/geo_pubs/article/1082/viewcontent/83.pdf |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006669 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research |
container_volume |
111 |
container_issue |
D16 |
_version_ |
1768380216426627072 |