MEASUREMENT OF POLLUTANTS IN THE SNOW MEASUREMENT OF POLLUTANTS IN THE SNOW DEPOSITION OF K2 AND EVEREST (DEPOSITION OF K2 AND EVEREST (NorthNorth Side)Side)

9 th Alpine Glaciological Meeting, Milan 24-25 February 2005

Vuillermoz E., Polesello S., Cozzi G., Barbante C., Guzzella L., Valsecchi S., Roscioli C., Comi M., Teti P., Tartari G.

K2K2--2004 50 YEARS LATER2004 50 YEARS LATER

Alpine – scientific Project involving 33 alpinists and 49researchers

Realization of 9 research projects related to 5 subjects : medicine and physiology, geodesy, glaciology, environmental science, ecocompatibility

Everest Northern slope (April-May 2004) : 34 researchers

K2 Southern slope (June-July 2004) : 17 researchers

K2 Northern slope (June-July 2004) : 3 researchers

INDIA

C H I N A

P A K I S T A N

N E P A LK2K2

EverestEverest

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONGEOGRAPHIC LOCATION

Determination of nutrients, macroconstituents, acidifying

species, persistent organicmicropollutants, trace metals

present in the sub-surfacial snowlayer

SAMPLINGSAMPLING

Storage in special freezer to keep the snow frozen during the transport to

Italy

Determination in field of pH, conductivity and organiccompound extraction by

Twister

Collection of fresh snow samplesat different altitudes

SAMPLINGSAMPLING

EVEREST NORTH SIDEEVEREST NORTH SIDE

Sampling date Station Altitude

(m a.s.l.) pH Conductivity (µS/cm)

06/05/04 ADVANCED BASE CAMP 6489 6,93 1,9810/05/04 ADVANCED BASE CAMP - CAMP 1 6700 7,24 3,2709/05/04 CAMP 1 7000 7,55 7,5809/05/04 CAMP 1-CAMP 2 7300 6,61 3,81

Tibetan slope

SAMPLINGSAMPLINGK2 SOUTH SIDEK2 SOUTH SIDE

Sampling date Station Altitude

(m a.s.l.) pH Conductivity (µS/cm)

25/06/04 BASE CAMP 5000 4,99 1,8629/06/04 CAMP 1 6100 5,45 4,0602/07/04 CAMP 2 6470 5,35 1,4725/07/04 CAMP 2 6460 5,44 1,31

Pakistani slope

K2 NORTH SIDEK2 NORTH SIDE

Sampling date Station Altitude

(m a.s.l.) pH Conductivity (µS/cm)

02/07/04 BASE CAMP 4950 5,89 3,2212/07/04 BASE NORTH SIDE 5225 6,59 3,3114/07/04 CAMP 2 6500 6,54 6,94

Chinese slope

ORGANIC COMPOUND EXTRACTION IN FIELDORGANIC COMPOUND EXTRACTION IN FIELD

- 20 ml of sample in vials with a twister - triple determination:1. only fresh snow sample2. fresh snow sample + PCB std3. fresh snow sample + PAH std

- After closing, vials on magnetic stirrer for 180 min

- Sample to Italy for analitycal determination

RESULTS PRESENTATIONRESULTS PRESENTATION

Islamabad, 25 – 27 April 2005

The K2 2004 Expeditionenvironmental result’s will be

presented during the InternationalKarakorum Conference

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FRESH SNOW CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FRESH SNOW SAMPLES FROM NORTH AND SOUTH SLOPES SAMPLES FROM NORTH AND SOUTH SLOPES OF HIMALAYA DURING OF HIMALAYA DURING MONSOON SEASONMONSOON SEASON

0,00

0,5 0

1 ,00

1 ,5 0

2 ,00

2 ,5 0

3 ,00

3 ,5 0

4 ,00

Cl- NO3 SO4 - Na + NH4 K+ Mg ++ Ca ++

µeq/l

Him a la y a n Nor th er n Slope

Him a la y a n Sou th er n Slope

Data sourceMarinoni et al., 2000; Balerna et al., 2002

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FRESH SNOW CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FRESH SNOW SAMPLES FROM NORTH AND SOUTH SLOPES OF SAMPLES FROM NORTH AND SOUTH SLOPES OF HIMALAYA DURING HIMALAYA DURING EXTRAMONSOON SEASONEXTRAMONSOON SEASON

0,00

5 ,00

1 0,00

1 5 ,00

2 0,00

2 5 ,00

3 0,00

Cl- NO3 SO4 - Na + NH4 K+ Mg ++ Ca ++

µeq/l

Him a la y a n Nor th er n Slope

Him a la y a n Sou th er n Slope

Data sourceMarinoni et al., 2000; Balerna et al., 2002

COMPARISON BEWEEN CHEMICAL COMPARISON BEWEEN CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ALPINE AND COMPOSITION OF ALPINE AND

HIMALAYAN FRESH SNOW SAMPLESHIMALAYAN FRESH SNOW SAMPLES

0,00

5,00

1 0,00

1 5 ,00

20,00

25,00

30,00

Cl- NO3 SO4- Na+ NH4 K+ Mg++ Ca++

µeq/l

AlpsHimalaya Monsoon SeasonHimalaya Extra Monsoon Season

Data sourceAlps: Nikus et al., 1997; Balzani Loov, 2003, Bini, 2004

Himalaya: Marinoni et al., 2000; Balerna et al., 2002; Kang et al., 2004

MAIN FEATURES OF HIMALAYAN FRESH SNOW MAIN FEATURES OF HIMALAYAN FRESH SNOW CHEMICAL COMPOSITION CHEMICAL COMPOSITION

•Substantial homogenity of main ion concentrations, notdependent on geographical location but only on seasonality

•In pre-monsoon season Himalayas are not an effectivebarrier for dust storm transportation

•Monsoon and late monsoon concentrations (lower thanpre-monsoon concentration) are similar on the twoslopes of Himalayas (SO4 : Southern slope = 0.66 µeq/l ; Northern slope 0.52 µeq/l)

•Summer deposition in high-elevation site in centralAsia are not substantially influenced by anthropogenicinputs (NO3 0.1-2.0 µeq/l ; SO4 0.05-2.0 µeq/l)

MAIN FEATURES OF ALPINE FRESH SNOW MAIN FEATURES OF ALPINE FRESH SNOW CHEMICAL COMPOSITIONCHEMICAL COMPOSITION

•Ionic concentrations higher in eastern slopeNO3, SO4, NH4 increase from 2 to 5 µeq/l

•Equal distribution of chemical load (regionalscale)

•High differences due to seasonal influence(low concentrations in winter)

•General reduction of SO4 : 7.8 µeq/l (1990) 3.7 µeq/l (2002)

•General increase of oxidizing and acidifyingspecies NO3 : 3-15 µeq/l (1990) 1-20 µeq/l (2002)

COMPARISONCOMPARISON

•Alpine seasonal loads higher than Himalayan loads (NO3:Alps = 7.3 µeq/l ; Himalaya = 0.8 µeq/l)

•Alpine load: anthropogenic origin(SO4 = 5.2 µeq/l ; NO3 = 7.3 µeq/l )

•Himalayan load: natural origin(Ca++ = 3 µeq/l M ; 27 µeq/l EM)

•High altitude alpine snow is not influenced by pollutants fluxes in winter while in summer mechanism of pollutants transportation intervenes

Snow chemical composition Meteoclimatic research

Better knowledge of transportpollutants mechanism

Influence of ABC on pre-monsoon snow deposition