Report By Martin Case:

There was certainly “something in the air” at Middlebury College last month, when professor William Zoller from the University of Washington captivated Green Mountain local section members and Middlebury students alike with his lecture “Atmospheric Chemistry n Hawai’I: Long Range Transport of Dust and Pollutants across the Pacific Ocean”. We were left in no doubt about professor Zoller’s ground-breaking contributions to the science of atmospheric sampling: from Hawai’i to Norway, and high into the stratosphere prof. Zoller has been sampling aerosols from volcanic and human activity for almost fifty years. Thanks to his work we’ve learned much about acid rain, dust clouds, and how pollution travels the globe impacting the most unlikely places. Perhaps understandably, professor Zoller has chosen to focus his research on Hawai’i. After all, this is one of the globe’s most active volcanic regions and we learned much about the different make-up of gases from “hot spots”, calderas and fumaroles. In contrast to the global implications of his work, prof Zoller emphasized a meticulous attention to detail in his sampling methods – a message that will hopefully be taken back to the lab by the many Middlebury students in the audience. The highlight of prof. Zoller’s talk was his defiant rebuttal of the popular idea that a meteor impact off the coast of Mexico drove the dinosaurs to extinction. Apparently, a careful examination of the KT boundary layer reveals iridium levels typical of Earthly vulcanism in the Deccan Traps of India rather than extraterrestrial visitors. Maybe we can persuade Walter Alvarez to come and give us the other side of the argument…?

Bills Bio:  Bill Zoller grew up in Alaska during the 1950's and 60's. He graduated in chemistry from the University of Alaska in 1965 and went to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied nuclear chemistry and graduated in 1969 with a Ph.D. He became an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Maryland in 1970 after a brief post doc at the University of Hawaii. He became a Full Professor in 1969 at Maryland, and while there published numerous research papers and led research programs in urban air pollution, volcanic chemistry, and atmospheric chemistry in Antartica. He used Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis to measure trace elements in samples from the atmosphere and to measure the release of radioisotopes from atmospheric weapons testing and reactor accidents, such as Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union.

Bills Abstract: Atmospheric Aerosol samples were collect at the Mauna Loa Meteorological Observatory on the Big Island of Hawaii from 1979-1992. These filter samples were collected only during Down Slope winds allowing one to sample to Free Troposphere with minimal Island contamination. The filter samples were analyzed by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis for approximately 35 trace elements. The source of aerosols that were reaching the Observatory were the Queen (Na,Cl), and continental dust (Al, Fe,Sc) from the surrounding continents, and Asian dust which was one of the most dominate source for the Island. One could also measure the quantity of Island weathering that contributed to the aerosol loading. Pollutant transport from the surrounding continents could occasionally be observed, and traced backed to the source region using air mass trajectories. The combustion of Oil from the Exxon Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska was also measured in Hawaii, as the largest signal in the vanadium record over the entire collection record.