Chalcogen Elements In Snow: Relation To Emission Source

We have measured the concentrations of S, Se, and Te in samples of 1986 snow and compared our results with those of earlier measurements. We were unable to find any earlier reports on Te in snow, but values of the Se/S concentration ratio in 1986 are about a factor of 6 lower than that in snow and glacial ice of 800 B.C. Measurements on intermediate samples demonstrate that most of the decline in the Se/S ratio occurred during the past 200 years, i.e., since the start of the Industrial Revolution. This temporal change in values of the Se/S ratio probably reflected a shift in the major emission sources—from natural processes such as volcanism and biomethylation to largescale combustion of fossil fuels. © 1988, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved