TY - JOUR

T1 - Geochemical trends in metal-contaminated fiord sediments near a former lead-zinc mine in West Greenland

AU - Elberling, Bo

AU - Asmund, Gert

AU - Kunzendorf, Helmar

AU - Krogstad, Eirik J.

N1 - Funding Information: Funding for this work was provided by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Denmark, as part of the environmental support program Dancea- Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic. This project “Sulphide mineral oxidation—a source of heavy metal pollution in Arctic ecosystems” was furthermore supported by the Department of Arctic Environment, National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark and the Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen. The DLC Axiom laboratory was established by funding from the Danish National Research Foundation. We wish to thank J. Strand and the crew of R/V Adolf Jensen for help during sampling, P. Outridge during the initial isotope analysis, T. Andersen, B. E. Møller and T. Waight for help during the final isotope analysis at DLC. Also, we wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the paper. The authors are solely responsible for the results and conclusions presented, and these do not necessarily reflect the position of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

PY - 2002

Y1 - 2002

N2 - Disposal of sulfidic waste in marine environments implies an environmental risk due to potential release and spreading of heavy metals to sediments and biota on a regional scale. However, tailings disposal in marine systems is practised in several places. Fiord sediments near Black Angel Mine in West Greenland are contaminated by Pb and Zn as a result of mining activity and marine disposal in the period 1973-1990. Chemical analyses were performed on 6 fiord sediment cores collected up to 10 km away from the disposal area and included heavy metal analysis, high-resolution stable Pb isotope stratigraphy and radiochemical dating (210Pb). The results were used for evaluating spatial and temporal distribution of anthropogenic heavy metals from the marine disposal. A significant accumulation of Pb and Zn on a regional scale is still observed 9 years after mine closure. Stable Pb-isotope data provide a unique fingerprint of the mining-related Pb sources in the area. Today spreading of mining-related Pb up to 10 km away from the mining area accounts for more than 80% of total Pb in sediment deposited within the last 100 years.

AB - Disposal of sulfidic waste in marine environments implies an environmental risk due to potential release and spreading of heavy metals to sediments and biota on a regional scale. However, tailings disposal in marine systems is practised in several places. Fiord sediments near Black Angel Mine in West Greenland are contaminated by Pb and Zn as a result of mining activity and marine disposal in the period 1973-1990. Chemical analyses were performed on 6 fiord sediment cores collected up to 10 km away from the disposal area and included heavy metal analysis, high-resolution stable Pb isotope stratigraphy and radiochemical dating (210Pb). The results were used for evaluating spatial and temporal distribution of anthropogenic heavy metals from the marine disposal. A significant accumulation of Pb and Zn on a regional scale is still observed 9 years after mine closure. Stable Pb-isotope data provide a unique fingerprint of the mining-related Pb sources in the area. Today spreading of mining-related Pb up to 10 km away from the mining area accounts for more than 80% of total Pb in sediment deposited within the last 100 years.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036194735&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/S0883-2927(01)00119-6

DO - 10.1016/S0883-2927(01)00119-6

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:0036194735

VL - 17

SP - 493

EP - 502

JO - Applied Geochemistry

JF - Applied Geochemistry

SN - 0883-2927

IS - 4

ER -