Lead isotope distribution in podzolic soil profiles on different types of bedrock in a formerly glaciated terrain (Oslo,Norway)

Lead has been exploited by man over thousands of years for a variety of metallurgical, medicinal, and industrial purposes. The cumulative output of Pb from mining is estimated to be 260 million metric tonnes and 85% of this has occurred over the last two centuries. Global annual production of Pb from mining was about 3 million tonnes at the turn of the millenium. Terrestrial ecosystems all over Norway have been contaminated moderately to strongly by Pb and other trace elements from atmospheric deposition. With the aim of developing a method for mapping the accumulated content of anthropogenic Pb and how deep in the soil profile the atmospherically deposited Pb has penetrated, the concentration of Pb and the ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb ratio has been studied in podzolic forest soils at four locations with different lithology, i.e. age and type of bedrock, in the Oslo area. The concentrations of Pb in the soil profiles are 6.6–38.1 mg/kg (median 10.3). The ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb ratio ranges between 1.168 and 1.314 (median 1.267) over the entire profile. In the upper 5 cm the range is 1.168–1.191, similar to ratios determined in recent atmospheric deposition. Applying three different methods, the amount of anthropogenically deposited Pb is estimated at 1–6 t/km².