Concentrations of As and other chemical elements in bottom sediments of the Baltic Sea

DOI

As is less toxic than Hg, Cd, Pb, Se, Zn, and Cu. The As clarke for clays and shales is 10 ppm. Our samples of bottom sediments from Kurshskii Bay were determined to contain from 15 to 26 ppm As and up to 34 ppm As in the vicinity of the Neman River mouth. Elevated As concentrations (50-114 ppm) were detected in four columns of subsurface bottom sediments (at depths of 10-65 cm) from the Vistula Lagoon. Elevated As concentrations (50-180 ppm) were also found in a few surface samples of sand from the Gdansk Deep near oil platform D-6. These sediments are either partly contaminated with anthropogenic As or contain Fe sulfides and glauconite, which can concentrate As and contain its elevated concentrations. The As concentration in columns of bottom sediments from the Gulf of Finland were at the natural background level (throughout the columns) typical of the area (9-34 ppm). We repeatedly detected very high As concentrations (up to 227 ppm As) in politic ooze from Bornholm Deep, in the vicinity of the sunken vessel with chemical weapons. The sources of elevated As concentrations in the Baltic Sea are the following: (1) chemical weapon (CW) material buried in the floor of the Baltic Sea; (2) As-bearing pesticides, agricultural mineral fertilizers, and burned coal and other fuels; (3) kerogen-bearing Ordovician rocks exposed on the bottom; and (4) As-rich Fe sulfides brought to the area together with construction sand and gravel. This mixture was used in paper production and for the construction of hydraulic engineering facilities in the Vistula Lagoon in the early 20th century and later caused the so-called lagoon disease.

Supplement to: Emelyanov, Emelyan M; Kravtsov, Victor A (2007): Cause of elevated As concentrations in the Baltic Sea and Vistula Lagoon. Geochemistry International, 45(8), 798-815

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.725499
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1134/S001670290708006X
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.725499
Provenance
Creator Emelyanov, Emelyan M; Kravtsov, Victor A
Publisher PANGAEA
Contributor P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS, Atlantic Branch, Kaliningrad
Publication Year 2007
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Language English
Resource Type Supplementary Publication Series of Datasets; Collection
Format application/zip
Size 6 datasets
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (15.718W, 55.133S, 24.981E, 59.585N); Baltic Sea, Gulf of Finland; Baltic Sea, Bornholm Deep; Baltic Sea, Gdansk Deep; Baltic Sea, northern part