Pollution revealed by stable lead isotopes in recent snow from the northern and central Tibetan Plateau

Lead (Pb) isotopes are less fractionated than those from different sources, and thus were used to trace the sources of Pb in the environment. To investigate the sources of Pb in the atmosphere of the Tibetan Plateau, stable Pb isotopes (206Pb, 207Pb and 208Pb) in acidified snow pit samples collected from five glaciers (i.e., Qiyi-QY, Meikuang-MK, Yuzhufeng-YZF, Hariqin-HRQ and Xiaodongkemadi-XDKMD) in May 2016 of the northern and central Tibetan Plateau were measured. The results showed narrow ranges of 1.158–1.187 for 206Pb/207Pb and 2.450–2.489 for 208Pb/207Pb respectively. The 206Pb/207Pb ratios in all samples were obviously lower than the environmental background value of 1.196, indicating the primary contributions of anthropogenic sources. At least 60% of Pb was contributed by various human activities, which was supported by the Pb isotopes in the snow pit samples from the QY, MK, YZF, HRQ and XDKMD glaciers. By comparing Pb isotope data, we found that the primary anthropogenic sources are coal combustion, mining and smelting activities in northwestern China and mixed emissions from cities located in western China and close to the glaciers. These sources contributed to the Pb in the northern glaciers (QY and MK) in particular. Coal combustion in India probably contributes to the central glaciers (HRQ and XDKMD). Another potential source could be parts of central Asia (e.g., Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) through long range transport. The above potential source areas of contaminants were traced further by the air mass back-trajectory tracing method. [Display omitted] •Snow samples were collected from 5 glaciers in north and central Tibetan Plateau.•Anthropogenic Pb in north glaciers mainly from coal and ore in northwest China.•Anthropogenic Pb primarily from Indian coal combustion in central glaciers.