Effects of the November 2012 Flood Event on the Mobilization of Hg from the Mount Amiata Mining District to the Sediments of the Paglia River Basin

Minerals

Giulia Pattelli¹  Valentina Rimondi¹  Marco Benvenuti¹  Laura Chiarantini¹  Antonella Colica¹  Pilario Costagliola¹  Francesco Di Benedetto¹  Pierfranco Lattanzi²  Mario Paolieri¹ 

[1] Department of Earth Sciences, University of Firenze, via G. La Pira 4, Firenze 50121, Italy; E-Mails:;Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Cagliari, via Trentino 51, Cagliari 09127, Italy; E-Mail:

关键词: mercury;    mining;    Mount Amiata;    sediment;    flood;    dam;   

DOI  :  10.3390/min4020241

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The Mount Amiata mining district (southern Tuscany, Italy) was, for decades, one of the world’s largest mercury (Hg) producing regions, where mining activity lasted until the 1980s. The Paglia River drains the eastern part of the district and is also the main western tributary of the Tiber River. Recent studies show that, still today, high total Hg contents severely affect the downstream ecosystems of these rivers. In November 2012, a major flood event occurred in the Paglia River basin, which drastically changed the river morphology and, possibly, the Hg concentrations. In the present work, stream sediment was sampled before and after the flood to evaluate possible changes in sediment total Hg concentrations as a consequence of this event. The comparison between pre- and post-flood Hg concentrations shows that Hg content increased up to an order of magnitude after the flood, suggesting that this event triggered Hg mobilization in the basin rather than its dilution.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland