Magnetic Screening and Multivariate Techniques in Antarctic Soils, Marambio Station

MARCOS A.E. CHAPARRO; JUAN M. LIRIO; MAURO A.E. CHAPARRO; HECTOR NUÑEZ; CLAUDIA MARINELLI; CLAUDIA S.G. GOGORZA; ANA M. SINITO

Acapulco, Mexico

Congreso; 2007 Joint Assembly, American Geophysical Union (AGU); 2007

AGU

Antarctic stations are an interesting and particular field for pollution research because of the small area of influence and the reduced number of sources. The present contribution constitutes one of the first studies of magnetic screening and heavy metal pollution on Antarctica (Marambio station, $64\deg$ 14\’S; $56\deg$ 37\’W), being a suitable method for contamination assessment in Antarctic areas.   Among magnetic studies, magnetic susceptibility, anhysteric and isothermal remanent magnetisation and thermal studies were carried out. Magnetite-like carriers are especially dominant in samples collected near pollution sources. Among several heavy metals, lead and zinc are the main trace elements reaching high values, both are end products derived from fuel combustion and residues, solid waste and paints. The magnetic and heavy metal measurements, and related maps of this case study can be considered as a reference in the area for future work.   The correlation results between magnetic and chemical variables show moderate relationships varying from 0.409 to 0.663. Moreover, canonical correlation analysis showed very good canonical correlations: R= 0.950. On the other hand, other multivariate techniques were studied in order to classify the data according to the degree of contamination, principal coordinates and discriminant analyses, as well as the comparison of several multivariate means were performed. Therefore, three groups were distinguished, which were well classified at a low margin of error and quite different from each other at a significant level: 0.01.