Dispersion of bauxitic red mud in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece

Bauxitic red-mud slurry, discharged by an aluminium processing factory on the shelf of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece, is used as a tracer to examine sediment transport and dispersion processes in a tectonically active deep basin.

The Gulf of Corinth is a silled elongate basin with a maximum depth of 860 m; it is characterised by high seismicity. The red mud is discharged through a pipeline at a depth of 100 m, where it forms an extensive deposit.

Grab sampling has shown that the red mud extends over the slope and the abyssal plain up to a distance of 17 km from the mouth of the pipeline. It forms small scattered sheet-like deposits of up to 3 cm in thickness. The structures observed in the scattered patches of the red mud, which in some places are overlain by a thin veneer of grey/olive green (natural) sediments, suggest that the red mud is transported from the shelf to the abyssal plain by gravitative sediment flows. The flows are triggered by earthquakes.

Granulometric and geochemical analyses of the red-mud samples show that the red mud, during its transport from the shelf to the abyssal plain, is subjected to mixing with the surrounding sediments. A different mixing ratio is determined, however, by reference to the various trace metals (Fe, Ni, Co, Pb).