Santiago - An ice core from the Antarctic bears traces of uranium that may have been carried by the wind from Australian mines in 1995, a Chilean glacier expert told El Mercurio daily on Sunday.
The minuscule amounts of the radioactive element "correspond to a year (1995) when Australia increased its uranium production," said Ricardo Jana, who participates in an international research effort in the frozen continent.
He said scientists theorise the uranium particles were carried by the wind from Australia and deposited in the northern part of the Antarctic's Detroit peninsula.
Jana works for the Chilean Antarctic Institute, which takes part in a joint Brazilian-Chilean-American glaciological and atmospheric research on the Detroit Plateau. - AFP