Automatic equipment to monitor groundwater radon

Prototype instrumentation, able to automatically measure groundwater radon content variations, is presented. The equipment is made of stainless steel and has spherical valves with automatic and pneumatic control. The deemanation of the gases from the water is obtained by evacuating a suitable expansion chamber. The instrumentation can make discrete sampling ranging from 1 per hour to 1 per 99 hours. The equipment was tested in the laboratory: the efficiency was measured by means of a²⁶⁶Ra solution. A mean value of (0.65±0.07) count/s/Bq was obtained. A calibration test was carried out by comparing countings from the automatic equipment with those obtained by the standard laboratory cell. Results of an operational check over a period of approximately one year indicate that variations in radon at the calibration site are attributable more to meteorological than to tectonic causes.     

我国藻菌生物成因的金矿研究

生物成矿作用分为生物直接成矿作用和生物间接成矿作用,生物直接成矿作用的标志结构为生物有机胶体结构。生物间接成矿作用的标志结构为“矿交代生物”结构,我国陕西二台子－半仓沟金矿,四川东北寨金矿、川甘拉尔玛金矿和云南金厂金矿等均为典型为实例,矿石中普遍含有多种金属矿物生物结构,还含多种生物有机组分。成矿物质具有多源性特征,硫同位素具混合型特征,矿床成型机制可与“人工碳吸附系统”聚金机制相类比,含金层位可     

青藏高原腹地湖泊沉积对第四纪晚期古季风变化的响应

通过对青藏高原腹地的综合科学考察和对中心钻孔岩芯剖面的最新研究,用层序地层学与年代地层学和气候地层学相结合的方法,分辨出可可西里地区湖泊沉积记录(孔深7.25 m)的第四纪晚期距今3万余年以来的古气候变化,沉积物磁化率等因子综合表征的高原古季风变化是波动发展的,发生在仙女木期地质环境事件中的季风活动具有强烈暴发的特点,是高原季风发展中的突变事件,而且地表热点效应对其起到了激发作用。综合分析的研究成果表明,它的变化频谱与激变因子及其运行机制是伴随着青藏高原地质效应的演变而发展的,为研究第四纪冰消期以来的气候变化提供了新的信息。     

Environmental impacts from mining at Taojiang Mn ore deposit, central Hunan, China

The Taojiang Mn ore deposit was exploited in the early 1960s, and waste rocks were developed since then. Because the Mn ores were hosted within the metal-enriched black shales （Peng et al., 2004）, the continuous mining has led to the exposure of an immense quality of black shales, which might cause serious impacts on environments. The present study deals with this environmental issue with samples from the waste rocks, and from the surrounding soils and surface water. The mineralogy of the waste rock was studied using EMPA, then a large number of elements in all waste rock, soil, and water samples were analyzed at a wide range of concentrations with high accuracy using an Elan6000 ICP-MS machine at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The waste rock is composed mostly of black shales, with minor Mn carbonates. Both black shales and Mn carbonates of the waste rock contain many sulfide minerals, mainly pyrite, with minor galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and others. The waste rocks are enriched in many metals including Sc, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Pb, Th, U, Mo, Sb, Sn, Tl, and others, and the metals are mostly hosted within the sulfides. Weathering of waste rocks might cause emission of the following metals： V, Cd, Ni, Th, U, Mo, Sb, Tl, Sc, Cr, Cu, Zn, Sn, and minor Co, and Pb. The surrounding soils are highly enriched in Cr, Co, Cu, Zn, Mn, Mo, Cd, Tl, and Pb, with the enrichment factors of 2.67.3.8, 7.26, 7.27, 8.2, 5.7, 13, and 5.4, respectively. The element ratios （Rb/Cs, Fe/Mn, Nb/Zr, Hf/Zr, and Ba/Sr） and REE distribution patterns of the soils are similar to those of the waste rocks and bedrocks.     

Studies on environment protection of vanadium exploitation in open air

Vanadium, improving mechanism and jointing capacity of steel products, is a kind of excellent additive during steel-making and its industry gets support from national industry policy. On account of shallow buried depth and low technique request of exploitation, there is much exploitation by local people lacking system management and technique guidance in area rich in vanadium since years ago, which damages regional environment dramatically. Accordingly, taking stone coal-vanadium as an example, the paper focuses on environment impact on water environment and eco-environment caused by exploitation in open air. Impact of exploitation on surface water mainly includes mining drainage and eluviated water of stock yard. According to civilian exploitation in the area, the rock suffers man-made disturbance, therefore, water quality indicators of mining drainage like heavy metal, permanganate, CI, SO4^2-, F are able to be analogies of ground water quantity in the region since the primary component of drainage is surrounding rock ground water. Water monitoring result of local well shows as follows： pH 6.68, SO4^2- 5.76 mg/L, F- 0.005 mg/L, Fe 0.025 mg/L, Mo 8.08 μg/L, Ni 5.91 μg/L, Co 0.61 μg/L, and all of them reach corresponding standard of water quality. Ground water turns into acid mine water by oxygenation after it discharges and with the help of sulfur the acid water contains nocuous elements which permeate in groundwater and surface water arousing pollution. The value of pH in the range of standard indicates that the acidification of mine water is relatively weak in the diggings. Eco-environment damage is another aspect that cannot be ignored, it acts as： （1） peeling work and establishment construction destroy landform; （2） stack of waste soil and rock occupies amounts of land; （3） various exploitation activities like vegetation peeling, landform change will enlarge the scope or enhance the intensity of soil erosion, which destroys eco-environment by leading water and soil loss;     

Heavy metal contents in soil of major towns in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia

A total of 63 soil samples from 3 different soil profiles （urban, suburban and industrial areas） in major towns in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia were analyzed for the total concentrations of Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni and Cr. The soil samples were subjected to acid digestion and the concentrations of total metals extracted were measured or flame atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma - atomic emission spectrometry. According to the result of this study, Pb and Zn concentrations in urban soils are much higher than those of industrial and suburban soils. Total concentrations of Cu and Cr in industrial soil samples are high compared to other two soil profiles and Ni concentrations in the suburban area are slightly higher those of urban and industrial soils. Since Malaysia has not yet to come up with her own soil maximum allowable limit, the heavy metal concentrations were compared with the Dutch maximum allowable limit. The results indicated that the median of heavy metals values in the three different soil profiles is still below the Dutch system limit. From the maximum allowable value obtained from the Dutch system, a contamination/pollution （C/p） index for each site was calculated for the set of these five heavy metals. An advantage of using this method is to make a differentiation between pollution （C/p〉1） and contamination （C/p〈1） status in soils as well as being able to characterize each status into 5 different categories （slight, moderate, severe, very severe and excessive）.     

Changes in manganese and lead in the environment and young children associated with the introduction of MMT in gasoline

This is a 4-year longitudinal study to evaluate changes to the environment and exposure of young children associated with the introduction of methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl （MMT） into Australia in 2000. The cohort includes 57 females and 56 males; age range of 0.29 to 3.9 years. Samples are collected every 6 months from children in residences located at varying distances from major traffic thoroughfares in Sydney. Environmental samples： air, house and day care dustfall, soil, dust sweepings and gasoline. Samples from children： blood, urine, handwipes prior to and after playing outdoors, and a 6-day duplicate diet. All samples are analyzed for a suite of 20 elements using ICP-MS. Results are presented for the first three 6-month sampling periods for Pb and Mn. For dustfall accumulation, there was no significant change over the 3 sampling periods （time） for Pb or Mn, and a positive relationship between ‘traffic exposure＇ （traffic volume and proximity to the road） and Pb but not Mn. For handwipes, Pb and Mn in wipes taken from children after playing outdoors were usually significantly greater than for wipes taken prior to playing. There was no significant association between Pb or Mn in handwipes with traffic exposure. Dustfall accumulation was a significant predictor for Pb in the handwipes, and dust sweepings were a significant predictor of Mn in handwipes.     

Anomalous geochemical provenance and weathering history of Plio-Pleistocene glaciomarine fjord strata, Bardin Bluffs Formation, East Antarctica

Major and trace element chemical analyses of the Plio‐Pleistocene Bardin Bluffs Formation, on the margin of a major ice‐stream of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, yield an anomalous chemically altered sediment composition. The Bardin Bluffs Formation of the Pagodroma Group is one of the key deposits on the Antarctic continent recording glaciomarine sedimentation under open marine fjord conditions as recently as the Plio‐Pleistocene. In modern fjords occupied by outlet glaciers of ice sheets, the composition of fine‐grained terrigenous sediments approaches that of unweathered rock types exposed upstream. In the Bardin Bluffs Formation, average abundances of stable elements (Ti, Al, Zr) approach average upper crustal compositions and the element ratios are consistent with sediments with a cratonic source, implying glacial dispersal from a large shield area through the Lambert Glacier drainage system. Interestingly, the chemical index of alteration (CIA) of these sediments has values similar to those of average shales formed under conditions of chemical weathering. The sediments are particularly depleted in silicate Ca, which has been observed elsewhere in glacial muds sourced from pre‐glacial saprolites. The anomalous chemistry of the Bardin Bluffs Formation can be explained by a sequence of events, involving chemical weathering prior to glacial expansion and erosion. The presence of a remnant 1·5 m deep late Neogene weathering profile at the base of the Bardin Bluffs sequence corroborates this conclusion. Supply of large quantities of chemically weathered materials to Antarctic marginal basins requires at least partial deglaciation of the continent and was previously regarded as uncharacteristic for late Neogene Antarctica.