The record of trace elements that is preserved in high latitude ice masses, such as the Greenland ice sheet, potentially contains significant information concerning regional and global scale atmospheric and paleoatmospheric geochemistry, such as the timing and magnitude of volcanic eruptions, anthropogenic emissions, and climatic change. A crucial link in this record is that between atmospheric composition and snow chemistry. This project will conduct studies of wet depositional processes active in the high arctic by measuring concurrent aerosol and snow elemental composition, and combined with meteorological air trajectory analyses to help identify the types, locations, and transport pathways of contaminants in the ice sheet. Trace metal data from summer snow samples, compared to the annual accumulation data, will allow some conclusion on the seasonal timing of net deposition events. This information will be of significant help in interpreting the trace metal record contained in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project (GISP-II) deep ice core.
