Abstract
Two 10-m firn cores were drilled in June 1984 at Col de la Brenva, a high elevation site (4350 m a.s.l.) located just below the summit of Mt Blanc (4807 m) in the French Alps. At this elevation, summer melting does not occur and the chemical composition of snow impurities reflects the background aerosol composition on a regional scale. One of the firn cores was carefully subsampled in ninety 10 cm long sections in clean air conditions and the meltwater samples analysed by ion chromatography for common ions (Na+, K+, NH4 +, Mg++, Ca++, S04 =, NO3 - and Cl-). Acidity/alkalinity was accurately titrated. Snow layer dating indicates that the studied time period covers about 2.5 years. Along the cores, several dusty bands corresponding to short Saharan dust events were discovered. Sulphate and calcium dominate the ionic composition. A tentative interpretation concerning the initial composition of the alpine aerosol at high elevation sites is made. In June 1986, a 70 m-deep firn core was drilled on a nearby high plateau. The chemical analylsis of this new core will provide an environmental record for at least the last four decades, a time period over which the impact of atmospheric pollution has increased most rapidly.
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© 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Ronseaux, F., Delmas, R.J. (1988). Chemical Composition of Bulk Atmospheric Deposition to Snow at Col De La Brenva (Mt Blanc Area). In: Unsworth, M.H., Fowler, D. (eds) Acid Deposition at High Elevation Sites. NATO ASI Series, vol 252. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3079-7_29
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3079-7_29
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