| Summary: | This is looking at marine contributions to South Pole aerosols. We took the chemical analysis and broke that down to indicate sources. Elements like sodium and magnesium would come predominantly from marine environments like the ocean. And so we could look at the sea salt ratios of all of these, and the ratios we found in our aerosols were about the same. So, what we have here is a percent calculated from the oceans based on sodium concentration, being assumed to be about 97% from the ocean, with 3% coming from crustal material. The crustal material was measured by measuring aluminum, iron, scandium, and then from that we could calculate the mass of sodium from crustal material and correct the marine contribution that way. So this was the idea we used in coming up with our elements. You’ll note that some of the ones there are very small percentages, like cobalt, .04 percent from the ocean, indicates that it had to all come from a crustal or other origin and not oceanic material. The predominant oceanic materials were, again, sodium and magnesium, occasionally potassium or calcium, but those four would be the ones that are predominantly oceanic.
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