Distinguishing between tills from Valdaian ice sheets in the Arkhangelsk region, Northwest Russia

Recent studies in the Arkhangelsk region, northwest Russia, have identified at least three consecutive tills all associated with the last Valdaian (Weichselian) glaciation. The Scandinavian ice sheet deposited a Late Valdaian till (ca. 17 ka BP), whereas two tills were deposited in the Early–Middle Valdaian by the Barents/Kara Sea ice sheet (ca. 45–60 ka BP) and an older ice sheet with an eastern centre (ca. 74 ka BP). This article expands on previous stratigraphical work on the discrimination of regional till units by a combination of compositional characteristics and directional properties. Tills associated with the Scandinavian ice sheet were deposited by a glacier advancing from west or northwest, transporting predominantly material from the Fennoscandian shield and the White Sea area. The Barents/Kara Sea ice sheet moved from the north and northeast, whereas the oldest ice advance came from the east–southeast. Although, the two oldest tills both contain material with an eastern provenance, the Viryuga Till is dominated more by local carbonate-rich material. This study demonstrates that detailed investigation of till units facilitate the distinction of glacial events imperative for the reconstructing of the last glaciation in northern Russia.     

Investigation of soil dynamic characteristics at seismic stations using H/V spectral ratio method in Marmara Region,Turkey

Natural Hazards - The North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) between the Arabian, Eurasian and African plates is one of the world’s most dangerous tectonic units. After the 1939 Erzincan...     

Solid solutions in the system acanthite (Ag<Subscript>2</Subscript>S)–naumannite (Ag<Subscript>2</Subscript>Se) and the relationships between Ag-sulfoselenides and Se-bearing polybasite from the Kongsberg silver district,Norway, with implications for sulfur–selenium fractionation

Sulfoselenides [Ag₂(S,Se)] and Se-bearing polybasite have been discovered at the Kongsberg silver district. The selenium-bearing minerals occur in two samples from the northern part of the district, forming either single or polyphase inclusions together with chalcopyrite within native silver. The Ag-sulfoselenides show large chemical variations, covering nearly the complete compositional range between acanthite (Ag₂S) and naumannite (Ag₂Se). For the data presented here, there is no local maximum at the composition Ag₄SSe attributed to the distinct phase called aguilarite, suggesting that this composition can be considered as one of many possible along the monoclinic Ag₂S–Ag₂S_0.4Se_0.6 solid solution series rather than a specific mineral phase. We present a model explaining the variations in the Se-content of Ag₂(S,Se) as a result of gradual de-sulfidization of the rock under oxidizing conditions. During this process, sulfur from the Ag₂S-component of Ag₂(S,Se) oxidized and dissolved in the fluid phase as SO₄^2?, resulting in the formation of native silver. The activity ratio \({a_{{{\text{S}}^{2 - }}}}/{a_{{\text{S}}{{\text{e}}^{2 - }}}}\) of the system gradually decreased due to the removal of SO₄^2?, which resulted in the stabilization of a sulfoselenide with higher selenium content. As a result of reaction progress, grains of Ag₂(S,Se) became gradually enclosed in newly formed native silver, and therefore isolated from further reactions with the grain-boundary fluid. Grains isolated early during the process show low content of Se reflecting high \({a_{{{\text{S}}^{2 - }}}}/{a_{{\text{S}}{{\text{e}}^{2 - }}}}\) of the equilibrium fluid, while grains showing high Se reflect the composition of late low \({a_{{{\text{S}}^{2 - }}}}/{a_{{\text{S}}{{\text{e}}^{2 - }}}}\) fluids. Analyses of Se-bearing polybasite show that selenium is preferentially partitioned into Ag₂(S,Se) compared to polybasite. The model presented here demonstrates how oxidation of sulfoselenides leads to fractionation of sulfur and selenium.     

Removal of antimony and arsenic from circum-neutral mine drainage in Poproč, Slovakia: a field treatment system using low-cost iron-based material

The main aim of this paper was to investigate the removal efficiency of antimony (Sb) and arsenic (As) from circum-neutral mine drainage in the former Sb mine in Popro? (Slovakia) using a simple field treatment system based on the adsorption onto iron fillings. The treatment system consisted of two batch reactors with a volume of 1 m³: the first was used for settling of spontaneously precipitated ochreous sediments and the second, filled with reactive iron material, was designed to remove Sb and As from mine water. This passively operated treatment system contained 150 kg of low-cost iron fillings and was able to treat approximately 360 l of mine drainage per hour. The average removal efficiency of Sb and As reached 84 and 89% during a period of 2.3 years of the system operation, respectively. On average, dissolved Sb and As concentrations in mine drainage decreased from 175 to 24.3 µg/l and from 452 to 50.6 µg/l, respectively. Based on the electron microprobe (EMP) analyses of corrosion products developed on the surfaces of iron fillings, average Sb and As contents were 0.28 and 0.73 wt%, respectively. The chemical analyses of precipitated HFOs in the settling reactor showed that these ochreous precipitates contained up to 19.3 g/kg Sb and 65.8 g/kg As, indicating their natural role in the removal of the two metalloids from circum-neutral mine drainage. The results of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses confirmed the presence of ferrihydrite and goethite in ochreous sediments.     

Geochemical and mineralogical composition of black weathering crusts on limestones from seven different European countries

Twenty-seven samples of black weathering crust and host carbonates were studied from seven European countries (Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy and Poland) representing 11 different sites. The samples were collected for sites for which long-term air pollution records are available. The mineralogical analyses (XRD, polarizing microscopy, SEM) have shown that despite decreasing SO₂ emissions crust samples are still very rich in gypsum. Further, in all host rock samples gypsum was also detected. Good correlations (R² > 0.9) were also found between water-soluble calcium and gypsum content and between sulphate and gypsum content both for black crusts and host rocks. The black gypsum crusts are four or five times richer in sulphate than the host rock. The conductivity of dissolved crust and host rock samples also shows a positive correlation with gypsum content of the samples. LA-ICP-MS analyses allowed the detection of high Pb-levels in black crusts and a negative shift in lead concentration at the crust/host rock transition. The lead content of the host rock is 2–5 mg/kg, while that of the crust is 3–25 mg/kg in the sample collected from Germany, while in the Belgian sample these values are 2–14 mg/kg and 80–870 mg/kg for the host rock and crust, respectively. The GC–MS technique allowed to detect the PAH content of black crusts and host rocks. The former one contains 0.6–15.6 (102.5) mg/kg, while in the host rock values between 0.2 and 2.4 mg/kg were found. The present study suggests that still large amounts of air pollution-related minerals and organic pollutants are found in the black weathering crusts of European carbonate buildings despite decreasing trends in air pollution.     

An improved version of innovative trend analyses

Systematic and random changes occur in any hydro-meteorological record and have significant effects on human activities on time and space scales. Although it is almost impossible to forecast the future behavior of any natural event accurately, researchers can identify trend on systematic variations and seasonality rather accurately with random residual parts. On the other hand, the role of trend is very significant in climate change studies and the Mann-Kendall test is the most employed method for trend identification. However, this method requires restrictive assumptions such as the data length, normality, and serial independence. Recently, innovative trend analysis (ITA) method is suggested for detailed trend determination and classification interpretations in a given time series without restrictive assumptions. In this study, an ITA-change boxes (CB) approach is proposed, taking into account quantitative changes with increasing or decreasing trends of the two half-time series obtained from the data. Given the periodicity of the hydro-meteorological data, the data group is used to obtain two half-time series instead of the data. This allows the researcher to numerically observe changes in trends beyond visualization. This approach assists to make more detailed interpretations about trend possibilities within a given time series. The applications of the proposed approach are presented for daily temperature and monthly rainfall and discharge records from Turkey, UK, and the USA.     

Potential nitrogen fixation changes under different land uses as influenced by seasons and biochar amendments

Soil nutrient dynamics, potential biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) changes, and their relations were studied using four land use types. Further, we investigated BNF changes in the presence of biochar in soils. Soil samples were collected from arable, vineyard, grassland, and forest soils during four seasons, and analyzed for abiotic contents of total nitrogen, NH₄⁺-N, NO₃^?-N, ammonium lactate (AL)-soluble K₂O, P₂O₅, and soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations. Potential N₂ fixation was measured as ethylene (C₂H₄) production from acetylene (C₂H₂) reduction (ARA). The study focused on the changes in ARA when different types of biochars (T600, T650, and T700) were applied to soil samples in different amounts (0, 0.5, 2.5, and 5.0% wt wt^?1) under laboratory conditions. We found strong correlations between soil chemical parameters and ARA values, especially in the case of soil pH, total N, SOC, and P₂O₅ contents. In the case of arable soil, the ARA measurements were up to 227 times higher compared to grassland and forest samples. Biochar application affected N₂-fixing microbial responses among land use types, most notably decreases in arable lands and forest soils. We found that a high amount of biochar added to the soils can greatly suppress N₂-fixing activities. Our results highlight the strong relationship between soil nutrient changes and the intensity of anthropogenic influence.     

Fate and biodegradability potential of an emerging micropollutant diclofenac in subsurface environment

The present study deals with the assessment of the fate of an emerging contaminant (diclofenac), present in the subsurface environment at specific concentration levels, and its biodegradation potential under different environmental configurations. Diclofenac is a widely consumed nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used as a painkiller prescribed as pills or ointments and among the most frequently detected pharmaceuticals in wastewater treatment plants’ effluents. Fermentative/methanogenic cultures were enriched from previously contaminated sediment samples. Although partial biodegradation was achieved in all enrichment cultures, complete degradation was not observed. The results reflected that less than 6% of the diclofenac sorbed on the solid phase and the rest was either biotransformed (25–40%) or remained in the liquid phase (55–70%) at the end of 45-day incubation period. Although partial cometabolic degradation of diclofenac occurred in the presence of glucose, biodegradation was not observed in the presence of readily biodegradable carbon source (i.e., acetate). Diclofenac concentration up to 1000 µg/L did not affect the methanogenic activity of the enriched culture. The results of this study will have a significant impact in the designation of the permitted concentration limits of diclofenac before the discharge through wastewater treatment plants.     

Revision of the planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the Voirons Flysch (Chablais Prealps,Haute-Savoie,France)

The ages obtained from planktonic foraminiferal assemblages retrieved from two exposures in the Gurnigel Flysch and from the re-examination of similar material gathered by previous researchers from the Voirons Flysch reveal only minor discrepancies with previous studies based on nannofossil biostratigraphy. In contrast, major divergences between this work and previous studies on the Voirons Flysch also based on planktonic foraminifera have been identified. They are generally related to distinct approaches in species classification and the use of different zonal schemes. Based on our data, the age of the Voirons Flysch extends from the Early Eocene (planktonic foraminiferal zone P7) to the Middle Eocene (planktonic foraminiferal zone P12). Contrasting with claims made in earlier studies, no specimen of Late Eocene or Early Oligocene age has been observed in the revised material. However, we cannot exclude a younger age (possibly Late Eocene) for the upper portion of this flysch from which we did not revise any sample. Thus, more research and sampling are needed to resolve this question. The palaeogeographic origin of the Voirons-Wägital complex as well as the sedimentation history of these flyschs need now to be re-evaluated in light of this revised biostratigraphic data.