# Scientists Traced Arctic Arsenic Back to a Montana Mine

Source: [Eos](https://eos.org/articles/scientists-traced-arctic-arsenic-back-to-a-montana-mine) · 2026-11-10 · Earth & Climate
Page: https://themorning.science/story/scientists-traced-arctic-arsenic-back-to-a-montana-mine-43294615d458b711
Kind: research · Impact: medium

## In brief

- Ice cores from Greenland, northern Canada and the Russian Arctic record arsenic, lead and other heavy metals linked to early 20th-century copper production.
- Emissions from the Anaconda Copper Mine complex near Butte, Montana, about a century ago were carried by winds over the Arctic and deposited by storms.
- The study is published in Nature Sustainability on 10 November 2026.

## Why it matters

The findings tie a historic industrial source to widespread heavy-metal deposition far from its origin, and the Nature Sustainability paper links it to health burdens, which matters for how past pollution is assessed in environmental and health research.

## Timeline

- 2026-11-10: Study published online in Nature Sustainability (doi:10.1038/s41893-026-01975-9)

## Coverage

- [Scientists Traced Arctic Arsenic Back to a Montana Mine](https://eos.org/articles/scientists-traced-arctic-arsenic-back-to-a-montana-mine) — Eos, 2026-11-10
- [Ice core records uncover widespread air pollution from early 20th-century copper production](https://phys.org/news/2026-11-ice-core-uncover-widespread-air.html) — Earth News - Earth Science News, Earth Science, Climate Change, 2026-11-10
- [Toxic secrets are hiding in Arctic ice](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/toxic-secrets-hiding-arctic-ice-harm) — Science News, 2026-11-10
- [Widespread North American pollution and health impacts from early twentieth century copper production](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-026-01975-9) — nature.com, 2026-11-10

Tags: arsenic, ice cores, air pollution, copper smelting, heavy metals, arctic

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Science – https://themorning.science