Historical record of European emissions of heavy metals to the atmosphere since the 1650s from alpine snow/ice cores drilled near Monte Rosa

Abstract

Cr, Cu, Zn, Co, Ni, Mo, Rh, Pd, Ag, Cd, Sb, Pt, Au, and U have been determined in clean room conditions by inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry and other analytical techniques, in various sections of two dated snow/ice cores from the high-altitude (4450 m asl) glacier saddle Colle Gnifetti, Monte Rosa massif, located in the Swiss-Italian Alps. These cores cover a 350-year time period, from 1650 to 1994. The results show highly enhanced concentrations for most metals in snow/ice dated from the second half of the 20th century, compared with concentrations in ancient ice dated from the 17th and 18th centuries. The highest increase factors from the pre-1700 period to the post-1970 period are observed for Cd (36), Zn (19), Bi (15), Cu (11), and Ni (9), confirming the importance of atmospheric pollution by heavy metals in Europe. Metal concentrations observed in Colle Gnifetti snow around 1980 appear to be quantitatively related to metal emissions from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, and Austria at that time, making it possible to reconstruct past changes in metal emission in these countries during the last centuries.