Volcanically influenced iron and aluminum cloud water deposition to Hawaii

Fog or cloud water (CW) deposition plays an important role in particle scavenging and the delivery of trace constituents to the Earthʹs surface. In this study, CW concentrations of total dissolvable iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al) were measured in 60 samples spanning 26 individual CW events throughout 1999 in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the island of Hawaii. Al concentrations ranged from 8 to 10,489 nM, with a median of 344 nM while Fe concentrations ranged from < 1 to 6419 nM with a median of 32 nM. CW deposition fluxes for Fe and Al ranged from 0.15–0.52 mmol Fe m−2 yr−1 and 0.62–1.35 mmol Al m−2 yr−1, depending on the estimation method used. The large range in concentrations is higher than expected for a relatively pristine ecosystem. It appears that this inconsistency is due to emissions from the currently active nearby volcano, Kilauea. Categorizing CW events into volcanically versus less or non-volcanically impacted events suggests that although volcanically impacted events only accounted for 12% of fog water deposition, Kilauea Volcano was responsible at least 42% of the measured CW Al deposition and 61% of the CW Fe deposition measured for 1999.