Chemical Components of Acid Snow and Those Accumulation and Migration Processes in Snowpack

Abstract

A hydrogeochemical study was carried out to investigate the chemical composition of new snow and ellution of ions through snowpack in the winter 1993. The area and the test-sites, where snow pit observation and snow cores sampling were done, are in the Mt. Hakusan at the altitude of 460m to 860m. We collected snow cores evry week during the winter, and analyzed them for pH, NO₃^-, SO₄^2-, Cl^-, Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺ and K⁺.
SO₄^2- and NO₃^- mainly contributed to acidification of new snow with the mean pH value 4.6. The pollutants were released from the pack due to episodic melting and wet metamorphism of snow during snow season, and the most part of pollutants flowed away from snowpack before melt season.