ODENSE, DENMARK—Live Science reports that Kaare Lund Rasmussen of the University of Southern Denmark and his colleagues employed X-ray fluorescence and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to analyze the chemical composition of a black spot found in the diary of Jørgen Brønlund, a member of a three-man expedition to Greenland’s Northeast Coast begun in 1906. Brønlund, an Inuit who had been born in Greenland, was the last survivor of the Denmark Expedition team when he too succumbed to frostbite and starvation in November 1907 on the return trip to base camp. The last page of his diary, which was recovered by a rescue team in 1908, was marked with a heavy black smudge that has been found to contain burnt rubber, oils, and human feces. The researchers suggest Brønlund may have tried to light a kerosene burner with a rubber gasket with anything he could find in an attempt to get warm. To read about historical lead levels detected in Arctic ice cores, go to "The Lead Standard."
