Distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in eolian and eolian-deluvial sediments from the North Iceland

They are largely composed of wind-transported palagonitized hyaloclastite particles and coeval horizons of acid and basic tephras. It is established that polyciclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are released from basaltic glass in natural environments only in case of intense physicochemical alteration and destruction of its structure.

This process does not influence PAH composition and their quantitative proportions. No new PAH formed during several thousands of years in Holocene section. Hydrocarbons are transferred from fixed state in basaltic glass into free state in palagonites practically without any changes.