Alpine-ice record of bismuth pollution implies a major role of military use during World War II

Michel Legrand (1, 2) , Joseph R Mcconnell (3) , Gilles Bergametti (1) , Susanne Preunkert (2) , Nathan Chellman (3) , Karine Desboeufs (1) , Laurence Lestel (4) , Andreas Plach (5) , Andreas Stohl (5)

1 LISA (UMR_7583) - Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques
2 IGE - Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement
3 DRI - Desert Research Institute
4 METIS - Milieux Environnementaux, Transferts et Interactions dans les hydrosystèmes et les Sols
5 Universität Wien = University of Vienna

Military conflicts result in local environmental damage, but documenting regional and larger scale impacts such as heavy metal pollution has proven elusive. Anthropogenic emissions of bismuth (Bi) include coal burning and various commodity productions but no emission estimates over the past century exist. Here we used Bi measurements in ice cores from the French Alps to show evidence of regional-scale Bi pollution concurrent with the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Tracers of the main sources of Bi emissions measured in the same ice—coal-burning, steel- and aluminum-industry, alloy and other metal processing—indicate a major, previously undocumented additional emissions source that we attribute to military activities between 1935 and 1945 Common Era (CE) in western Europe. These include the use of bismuth for low-melting point alloys for shells, thin-walled aluminum alloy aircraft oil, and munitions.

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Michel Legrand, Joseph R Mcconnell, Gilles Bergametti, Susanne Preunkert, Nathan Chellman, et al.. Alpine-ice record of bismuth pollution implies a major role of military use during World War II. Scientific Reports, 2023, 13 (1), pp.1166. ⟨10.1038/s41598-023-28319-3⟩. ⟨hal-03955000⟩