Chemical analyses were done on samples from a 2.2‐m deep snow pit and a 211‐m deep ice core that came from the top of the Vestfonna Ice Cap in Nordaustlandet, Svalbard, Norway. The snow pit samples showed that the temperature increased during the winter owing to advection of warm air from the south, and δ18O did not show a seasonal cycle. Chronology of the ice core was determined by tritium analysis and comparison to the signal from the volcanic eruption of Laki; the resulting accumulation rate was 0.34–0.35 m water eq. · yr−1 for the last 400 years. The δ18O profile in the ice core revealed a warm period from 1920 up to the present in Svalbard. According to nonseasalt (nss) SO42− and NO3− concentrations, anthropogenic substances had increased from 1940s but declined from 1970s to the present. The variation of nss SO42− and the increase of NO3− can be explained by an increase of SO2 and NOx emissions from Eurasia. The decline of NO3− is assumed to be caused either by a change in the transport process or by a change of NOx emissions from Europe.