Monitoring the fall of large atmospheric ice conglomerations: a multianalytical approach to the study of the Mejorada del Campo megacryometeor.

Certain local atmospheric anomalies, such as the formation of unusually large ice conglomerations (megacryometeors), have been proposed to be a potential natural hazard for people and aviation, as well as geoindicators for fingerprinting larger-scale atmospheric environmental changes. On March 13th 2007, at approximately 10:15 am, an ice chunk weighing about 10 kg fell from the clear-sky and crashed through the roof (around 15 m) of an industrial storage house in Mejorada del Campo, a town located 20 km east from Madrid. The megacryometeor monitoring follow-up and the original investigation presented here includes, for the first time, both logistic and scientific collaboration between the Laboratory of the Environment, Criminalistic Service (SECRIM, the Spanish "Guardia Civil") and academic and scientific institutions (universities and the Spanish National Research Council).

Capillary electrophoretic analysis of inorganic anions in atmospheric hailstone samples.

A new application of capillary electrophoresis (CE) for measuring inorganic anions in hailstones was carried out. Five hailstone specimens were collected from large blocks of ice that fell in January 2000 in some provinces of Spain. Sample handling and preparation procedures were performed with care.

Strategy for water analysis using ICP-MS.

The developed strategy permits determination in three steps of sixty-seven elements using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Sodium, Mg, Si, S, Cl, K, and Ca are determined in a first step; B, Al, P, Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Ag, Cd, Sb, Ba, Hg, and Pb are determined in a second step; and Li, Be, Ti, V, Co, Ga, Ge, Br, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Sn, Te, I, Cs, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Hf, Ta, W, Pt, Au, Tl, Bi, Th, and U are analyzed in a third step. The figures of merit obtained are adequate to carry out water quality monitoring and other hydrochemical studies, such those based in the application of hydrochemical fingerprinting to water management.