TY - JOUR
T1 - Metal inventory of the floodplain of the mining-impacted Geul River, The Netherlands
AU - van der Perk, M.
AU - Arribas Arcos, V.
AU - Miguel Alaya, L.
AU - Middelkoop, H.
AU - Scheepers, B.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - The Geul River, a 60 km long tributary in the southern Netherlands and eastern Belgium, has long been impacted
by historic mining activities in its headwaters. Zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb) mining took place since Roman times and
reached its peak in the late 19th and early 20th century until the mines closed in the 1920s. This has resulted
in widespread contamination of the floodplain due to overbank deposition of contaminated sediments. This study
aims to quantify the total metal inventory of the approximately 20 km long Dutch section of the Geul River floodplain
between Cottessen at the Belgium-Dutch border (50°45´25´´N, 5°56´09´´E) and Meerssen (50°52´35´´N,
5°46´11´´E). For this purpose, 74 1.7 m - 2.5 m deep corings (5 cm diameter) were conducted distributed over
nine transects. The cores were sampled every 10 cm. The resulting 1248 soil samples were air-dried, homogenised,
and analysed for Zn and Pb using a Thermo Fisher Scientific Niton® XL3t-600 handheld XRF analyser. The metal
inventory at each coring location was calculated by the sum of the product of the metal concentration, soil bulk density,
and depth increment (0.1 m). Multiple regression analysis was used to relate the metal inventories to distance
to the Dutch-Belgium border and distance to the river channel. Subsequently, the regression equation was used to
interpolate the metal inventories across the entire Geul River floodplain. The resulting map of metal inventories
can be used to assess and model past, current, and future sediment-associated metal transfer and redistribution in
the Geul catchment
AB - The Geul River, a 60 km long tributary in the southern Netherlands and eastern Belgium, has long been impacted
by historic mining activities in its headwaters. Zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb) mining took place since Roman times and
reached its peak in the late 19th and early 20th century until the mines closed in the 1920s. This has resulted
in widespread contamination of the floodplain due to overbank deposition of contaminated sediments. This study
aims to quantify the total metal inventory of the approximately 20 km long Dutch section of the Geul River floodplain
between Cottessen at the Belgium-Dutch border (50°45´25´´N, 5°56´09´´E) and Meerssen (50°52´35´´N,
5°46´11´´E). For this purpose, 74 1.7 m - 2.5 m deep corings (5 cm diameter) were conducted distributed over
nine transects. The cores were sampled every 10 cm. The resulting 1248 soil samples were air-dried, homogenised,
and analysed for Zn and Pb using a Thermo Fisher Scientific Niton® XL3t-600 handheld XRF analyser. The metal
inventory at each coring location was calculated by the sum of the product of the metal concentration, soil bulk density,
and depth increment (0.1 m). Multiple regression analysis was used to relate the metal inventories to distance
to the Dutch-Belgium border and distance to the river channel. Subsequently, the regression equation was used to
interpolate the metal inventories across the entire Geul River floodplain. The resulting map of metal inventories
can be used to assess and model past, current, and future sediment-associated metal transfer and redistribution in
the Geul catchment
M3 - Meeting Abstract
SN - 1029-7006
VL - 13
JO - Geophysical Research Abstracts
JF - Geophysical Research Abstracts
IS - EGU2011-10371
ER -