What is geochemical background value?
Geochemical background data are used to distinguish between the sources of heavy metal (natural or anthropogenic) and to categorize the level of heavy metal pollution.
What does background value mean?
Background values are determined by the composition of the underlying rock as well as the weathering processes prevalent in the area and are considered as the normal values of potentially polluting substances present in natural soils without human influence (Matschullat, Ottenstein, & Reimann, 2000. (2000).
What is geochemical background?
The term ‘geochemical background’ comes originally from exploration geochemistry. Hawkes and Webb (1962) defined background as (1) “the normal abundance of an element in barren earth material” and concluded “it is more realistic to view background as a range rather than an absolute value”.
What are geochemical factors?
Chemical processes such as ion exchange, adsorption, solid‐phase formation, and redox are considered and related to control of trace‐element concentration in solution and hence their mobility in soil. …
What are geochemical anomalies?
Definition: Area where geochemical properties (e.g. single or multiple element concentrations or isotope ratios) differ from surrounding areas and which may be the result of mineralisation.
What is a geochemical survey?
A survey involving the chemical analysis of systematically collected samples of rock, soil, stream sediments, plants, or water; this expression may be further modified by indicating specif. the material sampled, as, for example, geochemical soil survey.
What is element mobility?
In soil science, mobility is defined as the capacity for elements, ions, and molecules to move from one compartment of the soil (atmosphere, water and solid phases biota) to another.
What do you understand from geochemical prospecting?
Geochemical prospecting involves analyzing the chemical properties of rock samples, drainage sediments, soils, surface and ground waters, mineral separates, atmospheric gases and particulates, and even plants and animals. Properties such as trace element abundances are analyzed systematically to locate anomalies.
What do you mean by geochemical prospecting?
: prospecting for minerals with portable chemical kits designed for rapid testing of metallic elements in surface waters.
What is a geochemical survey used for?
Abstract. Regional geochemical surveys are used to locate large geochemical provinces, i.e., to describe large-scale variation of element concentrations, while local-scale surveys and detailed studies are aimed at revealing ore suboutcrops or point sources of contamination.
What is a geochemical sample?
Geochemical sampling methods are methods which involve collecting and analyzing various types of geological materials (such as soils, stream sediments and rocks) or certain biological materials (such as plants).
What is geochemical mobility?
continued The distribution of elements of the constituents rocks and minerals in response to various geological process are referred to as geochemical mobility.
Where did the term geochemical background come from?
The term ‘geochemical background’ comes originally from exploration geochemistry. Hawkes and Webb (1962) defined background as “the normal abundance of an element in barren earth material” and concluded “it is more realistic to view background as a range rather than an absolute value”.
How big is the footprint of a geochemical background?
The Kola Ecogeochemistry Project ( Reimann et al., 1998) has provided evidence that even around major industrial sites their recognizable footprint for most measurable substances in soil, moss, water and even snow and rain extends only a few hundred, and not thousands of, kilometres. Is ‘background’ a question of scale?
What is the definition of a geochemical anomaly?
“By definition, an anomaly, is a deviation from the norm. A geochemical anomaly, more specifically, is a departure from the geochemical patterns that are normal for a given area or geochemical landscape” ( Hawkes and Webb, 1962 ). To be able to differentiate between background and anomaly, the term threshold was introduced,
How long have geochemists been studying the environment?
Whilst geochemists have been aware of the natural variability of elements in the environment for over 50 years, the more so due to national geochemical mapping exercises undertaken in the last 25 years.