Based on the surface water samples collected around the South Orkney Islands in the austral summer 2012, using the AAS (Atomic Absorption Spectrometry), this paper analyzes the concentration and distribution of typical trace elements (Cu, Pb, Zn, and Fe) of surface water. The results show that the ranges of Cu, Pb, Zn, Fe are 0.033-0.121 mg/L, 0.414-1.478 mg/L,0.008-0.083 mg/L, and 0.255-0.454 mg/L, respectively. And the average concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn and Fe are 0.059 mg/L, 0.908 mg/L, 0.037 mg/L, 0.351 mg/L respectively, and that the concentration of Fe and Zn had increasing trend from west to east. And also it needed to be testified for this result why the concentration of these trace elements in this study was higher than that in other papers. But this result can provide basic data for the marine environment information database in the Southern Ocean and further help to study marine biogeochemistry in the Southern Ocean.