Fe 2+ in ice cores as a new potential proxy to detect past volcanic eruptions
Volcanic eruptions are widely used in ice core science to date or synchronize ice cores. Volcanoes emit large amounts of SO 2 that is subsequently converted in the atmosphere into sulfuric acid/sulphate. Its discrete and continuous quantification is currently used to determine the ice layers impacte...
Published in: | Science of The Total Environment |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2019
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10278/3724402 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.075 |
Summary: | Volcanic eruptions are widely used in ice core science to date or synchronize ice cores. Volcanoes emit large amounts of SO 2 that is subsequently converted in the atmosphere into sulfuric acid/sulphate. Its discrete and continuous quantification is currently used to determine the ice layers impacted by volcanic emissions, but available high-resolution sulphate quantification methods in ice core (Continuous Flow Analysis (CFA)) struggle with insufficient sensitivity. Here, we present a new high-resolution CFA chemiluminescence method for the continuous determination of Fe 2+ species in ice cores that shows clear Fe 2+ peaks concurrent with volcanic sulphate peaks in the ice core record. The method, applied on a Greenland ice core, correctly identifies all volcanic eruptions from between 1588 to 1611 and from 1777 to 1850. The method has a detection limit of ∽5 pg g −1 and a quadratic polynomial calibration range of up to at least 1760 pg g −1 . Our results show that Fe 2+ is a suitable proxy for identifying past volcanic events. |
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