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

Abstract

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