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IPFS News Link • Environment

Atmospheric acidity almost back down to preindustrial levels

• newatlas.com by Michael Irving

These figures come out of research by the University of Copenhagen, which used a new technique to measure the pH balance of ice core samples from the Greenland ice sheet, and how it's changed year to year.

In an area as cold as Greenland, the snow that falls never has a chance to melt. Instead, every year a new layer forms over the top of the previous one, which eventually packs into a tightly compressed layer of ice. With each layer preserving a record of the climate and atmospheric conditions of the time, the Greenland ice sheet provides scientists with a time capsule dating back over 100,000 years.

The problem with looking at samples of the layers in the top 60 m (200 ft), representing the last 100 years, is that they are still relatively fresh and porous. Since it hasn't yet compressed into hard ice, it's more difficult to analyze, which is unfortunate because this past century is of particular interest to researchers looking into the human impact on the climate.


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