Magnetic monitoring of anthropogenic pollution in Antarctic soils (Marambio Station) and the spatial-temporal changes over a decade

GARGIULO, JOSÉ D.; CHAPARRO, MARCOS A. E.; MARIÉ, DÉBORA C.; BÖHNEL, HARALD N.

CATENA

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2021

0341-8162

Marambio Station is one of the most important humansettling in the Antarctic Peninsula, which has been polluted by humanactivities since the 1970?s. Following the first magnetic monitoring inAntarctic soils (austral summer Antarctic campaign SAC 2006), a new soil surveywas performed during the SAC 2014. We determined elemental contents, observed particles, andmeasured magnetic parameters of topsoil samples, as well as compared theseresults with previous ones in order to evaluate changes in pollution (from fuelcombustion, solid waste disposal, etc.) over a decade after remediationpractices. Magnetic results reveal the presence of magnetite minerals as maincarriers with similar grain size and mineralogy-dependent magnetic parametersfor both campaigns. In particular, we focus on the well-known proxy forpollution mass specific magnetic susceptibility χ and geostatistical analysis for studying the spatial temporaldistribution of magnetic minerals for soil sites (n = 238 for SAC 2006; n = 185for SAC 2014) around the station. The present environmental magnetism approach,combined with geostatistical techniques and the pollution index PLI, reveals asignificant pollution decrease as consequence of a national remediation plan.