Pesticides, Industrial compounds found in snow atop Arctic glaciers

Team Udayavani, Aug 10, 2020, 2:13 PM IST

Researchers claim that they have found pesticides and industrial compounds deposited in snow atop four high-elevation glacier sites on the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard.

According to Times Now, Using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model, the researchers traced the origin of some of the pollutants to the United States and Russia.

They found 13 organochlorine pesticides and seven industrial compounds deposited in glacial surface snow.

The model is used for studying long-range transport of particles by atmospheric currents. During the study, the researchers analysed snow from four glacial sites on Svalbard

Presently, ice caps and glaciers cover over 56 percent of the archipelago