Trace metals in sediments of coastal Siberia

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references: p. 123-126.Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics.For the work described in this thesis, a total of 218 samples from 104 cores from the East Siberian, Laptev, Kara, and Pechora Seas and the Ob and Yenisei Rivers were analyzed for the trace metals Ag, As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb, and Zn. To make comparisons between locations easier, the concentration of all elements was normalized to Fe to account for variability in grain size and mineralogy. For the metals Ag, Cd, and Hg there was poor correlation with Fe, likely partially due to analytical variations caused by the low concentrations of these elements. Copper, Ni and Zn showed good correlation with Fe, suggesting these elements are from natural inputs to the sediments. Arsenic, Ba, Cr, Pb, and Sb showed variable correlations, suggesting a more mafic (basaltic) mineral phase at some locations and/or diagenetic redistribution of these metals. No statistically significant differences were found between metal to Fe ratios at the surface (0-2.5 cm) of the sediment cores and the bottoms (5- 1 00 cm), with a few exceptions. There was also no statistically significant difference in the average metal to Fe ratios of the East Siberian and Laptev Seas. There was, however, a significant difference when these two seas were compared to the Kara and Pechora Seas, suggesting different mineralogy in the drainage basins of eastern and western Siberia. Sediment from the Kara Sea was similar in trace metal concentration to sediment from its likely source, the Ob and Yenisei rivers