Samples of atmospheric precipitation, snow, and ice were collected during the IGY in East Antarctica at Mirny, Bunger Oasis (Dobrovolsky Station), Pioneerskaya, Komsomolskaya, Vostok, Sovetskaya, and the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility. The chemical composition of the precipitation and of the snow and ice cover is influenced by the relief and climatic features of the antarctic continent. Three distinctive zones can be identified in East Antarctica: the coastal strip, the oasis, and the inland region. The main feature of the chemical hydrology of the coastal strip is its comparatively high concentration of substances in precipitation, which, according to observations in 1958, ranged from 3.3 to 260.8 mg/1. The composition of atmospheric precipitation in this zone is influenced by the ocean. The relation of changes in the concentration of precipitation constituents to the dynamics of air masses over the region of observation, as well as to position of the drifting ice edge, was investigated. Precipitation in the ice-free surface area of the Antarctic oasis region is characterized by a predominance of HCO3−, Na+ + K+, and CA++ ions. The results of hydrochemical investigations in the East Antarctica inland region show very low concentrations of substances in snow. Fluctuations in the snow mineralization (total ion composition) are 1 to 4 mg/1 in this zone. Snow differs from that of the coastal strip by variations in ion concentrations. Calculation of the chemical ice runoff from an area 1.4×106 km2 showed some excess in the accumulation of salts by precipitation over runoff.
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Alex Matveev (1970) studied this question.