Source and climatic implication of the reactive iron and reactive silicate concentration found in a core from Meserve Glacier, Antartica

Glaciochemistry has recently provided a useful tool in the study of snow accumulation rates (Herron and Langway, 1979; Bulter et al., 1980 Warburton and Young, 1981; Mayewski et al., in press) and the elucidation of long-term climatic change (Delmas et al., 1980; Thompson and Mosley-Thompson, 1981) as well as the definition of aerosol/precipitation source areas (Warburton and Linkletter, 1978). Recent glaciochemical work from Antarctica has suggested that although cations associated with seasalt(Na, Mg, Ca and K) decrease in concentration as one proceeds inland, crustally-derived chemical species such as Al and Fe remain relatively constant in snow and ice (Boutron and Martin, 1980; Herron and Langway, 1979; Johnson and Chamberlain, 1981; Warburton and Young, 1981). This paper presents the first data suggesting that there is in some cases a local source for the crustally-derived material that enters Antarctic precipitation.