An international group of scientists revealed the cause of ancient anthropogenic pollution, which is dating from the XIV century and continues until now. The disclosure of the mysterious source of soot in the Antarctic is reported in the article published in the Nature magazine.
Scientists analyzed the samples of ice core from James Ross Island in Antarctica, recorded a significant increase in the level of ferrous carbon, which began about 700 years ago. Black carbon or soot consists of light-absorbing particles that enter the atmosphere, for example, with forest fires or combustion of fossil fuel by man.
Researchers explain it by the beginning of the practice of burning lands by the people of Maori in New Zealand, conducted in a scale, which influenced the atmosphere in most of the southern hemispheres and eased other pre-industrial emissions into the region during the last 2 thousand years.
To determine the source of ferrous carbon, the research team analyzed an array of six ice cores collected from James Ross and Continental Antarctica Island, using DRI Coren Analysis System. In Ice Core from James Ross Island, there was a noticeable increase in the content of black carbon in about 1300, and its levels were tripled for the next 700 years and reached a peak in the XVI-XVII centuries. However, the level of ferrous carbon in the continental antarctic sites at the same time remained relatively stable.
Researchers simulated atmospheric transfer and sedimentation of soot in the southern hemisphere, which confirmed the data obtained. Patagonia, Tasmania and New Zealand were the most likely sources of increasing black carbon emissions. Analysis of charcoal showed a significant increase in the frequency of fires, starting from about 1300. This date also coincides with the estimated arrival, colonization and subsequent burning of most of the forests of New Zealand, Maori.