Alia Khan, a graduate researcher from our CEAE department, just had a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters on the dissolved black carbon concentrations in the McMurdo Dry Valleys lakes. Diane McKnight, EVEN Professors is a co-author of the study. Congratulations!
The perpetually ice-covered lakes in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys preserve the dissolved remnants of black carbon from thousand-year-old wildfires as well as modern day fossil fuel use, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.
The distinctive molecular signatures can provide researchers with a glimpse into the planet’s long history of combustion. Atmospheric black carbon, which is generated by wildfires or fossil fuel use, becomes preserved in glaciers, which in turn serve as long-term reservoirs and chemical time capsules.
A study detailing the findings was published today in the American Geophysical Union journal, Geophysical Research Letters. Read more...