Black Carbon as a Source of Trace Elements and Nutrients in Ice Sheet of King George Island, Antarctica

Enormous deglaciation in the polar and mountainous regions of the Earth is associated not only with large-scale climatic changes but also with the global transfer of black carbon (BC) microparticles, which accumulate on the surface of glaciers and lead to changes in albedo and the rate of degradation of ice. BC is the product of an incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, volcanic eruptions, and wildfires. The accumulation of organogenic microparticles leads to the formation of cryoconites, which are dust made of a combination of small rock particles and the result of anthropogenic activities (fossil fuel combustion) that play a special role in deglaciation. Here, we describe the content of trace metals and nutrients in accumulation of the BC from glaciers of Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, Western Antarctica. The analysis of trace metals concentrations showed that most of the studied elements (Cr, Pb, Zn, Ni) have a volcanic origin; at the same time, Cd and Cu have been accumulated as a result of anthropogenic activity. The content of nutrients in BC are most similar with Technosols, which forms near the scientific station at King George Island. The particles of BC can be translocated into organisms, which could pose a significant risk for living organisms and humans.

Download Full-text

Black carbon as a factor in deglaciation in polar and mountain ecosystems: A Review

Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta Biologiya ◽

10.17223/19988591/52/1 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 6-33

Author(s):

Vyacheslav I. Polyakov ◽

◽

Evgeny V. Abakumov ◽

Rustam Kh. Tembotov ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Radiation ◽

Black Carbon ◽

Fossil Fuels ◽

Volcanic Eruptions ◽

The Arctic ◽

Strong Light ◽

Mountainous Regions ◽

Carbon Particles ◽

Central Caucasus ◽

Main Component

Black carbon is considered a product of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and materials that originated from volcanic eruptions or were emitted during wildfires. It is a strong light-absorbing component that has many atmospheric and surface effects in terrestrial and glacial ecosystems. Normally, black carbon is presented as a solid particle, consisting mainly of pure carbon, which absorbs solar radiation at all wavelengths. Some black carbon particles are amended by a mineral compound, though black carbon substances are normally dark or greyish dark. Black carbon is the most active part of suspended particles in the atmosphere and on glacial surfaces, absorbing solar radiation, the main component of ash, which consists of carbon particles with impurities in the form of mineral particles and also contains carbon of biogenic origin. In this paper, we have analyzed the literature on black carbon and its effect on deglaciation processes in the Earth’s polar and mountainous regions. The physical, chemical, and microbiological composition of black carbon accumulations were studied using the examples of the Arctic, the Antarctic, and the Central Caucasus. Potential sources and conditions of the transportation of black carbon into the polar zone and their effect on ice and snow have also been discussed.

Download Full-text

Occurrence, bioaccumulation and long-range transport of short-chain chlorinated paraffins on the Fildes Peninsula at King George Island, Antarctica

Environment International ◽

10.1016/j.envint.2016.05.005 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 94 ◽

pp. 408-414 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Huijuan Li ◽

Jianjie Fu ◽

Aiqian Zhang ◽

Qinghua Zhang ◽

Yawei Wang

Keyword(s):

Long Range ◽

Short Chain ◽

Long Range Transport ◽

King George Island ◽

Fildes Peninsula ◽

Chlorinated Paraffins ◽

Range Transport

Download Full-text

Trace Metals Analysis Along the Fildes Peninsula Coastline Using Two Red Algae, Rhodymenia antarctica and Iridaea cordata, as Monitors

Journal of Ocean University of China ◽

10.1007/s11802-018-3593-8 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 17 (6) ◽

pp. 1487-1491 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yang Liu ◽

Guoying Du ◽

Yunxiang Mao

Keyword(s):

Trace Metals ◽

Red Algae ◽

Fildes Peninsula ◽

Iridaea Cordata

Download Full-text

Satellite-based detection of volcanic sulphur dioxide from recent eruptions in Central and South America

Advances in Geosciences ◽

10.5194/adgeo-14-35-2008 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

pp. 35-40 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

D. Loyola ◽

J. van Geffen ◽

P. Valks ◽

T. Erbertseder ◽

M. Van Roozendael ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sulphur Dioxide ◽

Fine Particles ◽

Local Population ◽

Volcanic Eruptions ◽

Quantitative Information ◽

Visible Spectral Range ◽

Trace Gas ◽

Detection Scheme ◽

Volcanic Origin ◽

Rock Fragments

Abstract. Volcanic eruptions can emit large amounts of rock fragments and fine particles (ash) into the atmosphere, as well as several gases, including sulphur dioxide (SO2). These ejecta and emissions are a major natural hazard, not only to the local population, but also to the infrastructure in the vicinity of volcanoes and to aviation. Here, we describe a methodology to retrieve quantitative information about volcanic SO2 plumes from satellite-borne measurements in the UV/Visible spectral range. The combination of a satellite-based SO2 detection scheme and a state-of-the-art 3D trajectory model enables us to confirm the volcanic origin of trace gas signals and to estimate the plume height and the effective emission height. This is demonstrated by case-studies for four selected volcanic eruptions in South and Central America, using the GOME, SCIAMACHY and GOME-2 instruments.

Download Full-text

Volcanic Tremor Extraction and Earthquake Detection Using Music Information Retrieval Algorithms

Seismological Research Letters ◽

10.1785/0220210016 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zahra Zali ◽

Matthias Ohrnberger ◽

Frank Scherbaum ◽

Fabrice Cotton ◽

Eva P. S. Eibl

Keyword(s):

Amplitude Spectrum ◽

Volcanic Tremor ◽

Volcanic Eruptions ◽

Detection Algorithm ◽

Transient Signal ◽

Volcanic Origin ◽

Time Frequency ◽

Reconstructed Signal ◽

Single Station ◽

Transient Events

Abstract Volcanic tremor signals are usually observed before or during volcanic eruptions and must be monitored to evaluate the volcanic activity. A challenge in studying seismic signals of volcanic origin is the coexistence of transient signal swarms and long-lasting volcanic tremor signals. Separating transient events from volcanic tremors can, therefore, contribute to improving upon our understanding of the underlying physical processes. Exploiting the idea of harmonic–percussive separation in musical signal processing, we develop a method to extract the harmonic volcanic tremor signals and to detect transient events from seismic recordings. Based on the similarity properties of spectrogram frames in the time–frequency domain, we decompose the signal into two separate spectrograms representing repeating (harmonic) and nonrepeating (transient) patterns, which correspond to volcanic tremor signals and earthquake signals, respectively. We reconstruct the harmonic tremor signal in the time domain from the complex spectrogram of the repeating pattern by only considering the phase components for the frequency range in which the tremor amplitude spectrum is significantly contributing to the energy of the signal. The reconstructed signal is, therefore, clean tremor signal without transient events. Furthermore, we derive a characteristic function suitable for the detection of transient events (e.g., earthquakes) by integrating amplitudes of the nonrepeating spectrogram over frequency at each time frame. Considering transient events like earthquakes, 78% of the events are detected for signal-to-noise ratio = 0.1 in our semisynthetic tests. In addition, we compared the number of detected earthquakes using our method for one month of continuous data recorded during the Holuhraun 2014–2015 eruption in Iceland with the bulletin presented in Ágústsdóttir et al. (2019). Our single station event detection algorithm identified 84% of the bulletin events. Moreover, we detected a total of 12,619 events, which is more than twice the number of the bulletin events.

Download Full-text