Search

International audience; In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-knowledge of dust flux and variability in time and space in different sectors of East Antarctica during the Holocene. By integrating the literature data with new evidences, we discuss the dust flux and grain-size variability during the current interglacial and its provenance in the innermost part of the East Antarctic plateau as well as in peripheral regions located close to the Transantarctic Mountains. The local importance of aeolian mineral dust aerosol deflated from low-elevation areas of peripheral East Antarctica is also discussed in the light of new data from several coastal, low-elevation sites.

The elemental composition of 40 samples of mineral sediments collected in Victoria Land, Antarctica, in correspondence of ice-free sites, is presented. Concentration of 36 elements was determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis, INAA. The selection of 6 standard reference materials and the development of a specific analytical procedure allowed to reduce measurements uncertainties and to verify the reproducibility of the results. The decision to analyze sediment samples from Victoria Land ice-free areas is related to recent investigations regarding mineral dust content in the TALos Dome ICE core (159 11?E; 72 49?S, East Antarctica, Victoria Land), in which a coarse local fraction of dust was recognized. The characterization of Antarctic potential source areas of atmospheric mineral dust is the first step to identify the active sources of dust for the Talos Dome area and to reconstruct the atmospheric pathways followed by air masses in this region during different climatic periods. Principal components analysis was used to identify elements and samples correlations; attention was paid specially to rare earth elements (REE) and incompatible/compatible elements (ICE) in respect to iron, which proved to be the most discriminating elemental groups. The analysis of REE and ICE concentration profiles supported evidences of chemical weathering in ice-free areas of Victoria Land, whereas cold and dry climate conditions of the Talos Dome area and in general of East Antarctica. © 2013 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.

High-elevation sites from the inner part of the East Antarctic plateau sample windborne dust representative of large portions of the Southern hemisphere, and are sensitive to long-range atmospheric transport conditions to polar areas. On the periphery of the ice sheet, conversely, the aeolian transport of particles from high-elevation ice-free areas can locally represent a relatively important additional input of dust to the atmosphere, and the interplay of atmospheric dynamics, dust transport and deposition is strictly related to the regional atmospheric circulation behaviour both at present-day and in the past. The understanding of the spatial extent where local sources can influence the mineral dust budget on the ice sheet is fundamental for understanding the atmospheric dust cycle in Antarctica and for the interpretation of the dust history in marginal glaciological settings.In this work we investigate the spatial variability of dust flux and provenance during modern (pre-industrial) and Holocene times along a transect connecting Talos Dome to the internal sites of the Antarctic plateau and we extend the existing documentation of the isotopic (Sr-Nd) fingerprint of dust-sized sediments from Victoria Land source areas.Dust flux, grain size and isotopic composition show a marked variability between Talos Dome, Mid Point, D4 and Dome C/Vostok, suggesting that local sources play an important role on the periphery of the ice sheet. Microscope observations reveal that background mineral aerosol in the TALDICE core is composed by a mixture of dust, volcanic particles and micrometric-sized fragments of diatoms, these latter representing a small but pervasive component of Antarctic sediments. A set of samples from Victoria Land, mostly consisting of regolith and glacial deposits from high-elevation areas, was collected specially for this work and the isotopic composition of the dust-sized fraction of samples was analyzed. Results reveal a close relationship with the parent lithologies, but direct comparison between source samples and firn/ice core dust is problematical because of the ubiquitous volcanic contribution to the environmental particulate input in the Talos Dome area.The frequency of events potentially suitable for peripheral dust transport to Talos Dome appears relatively high for present-day conditions, according to back trajectories calculations, and the related air flow pattern well-defined from a seasonal and spatial perspective. Also, as expected from palaeo-data, these events appear extremely uncommon for internal sites. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.