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Pb isotope measurements of road dusts and background geologic materials in the Viburnum Trend resource extraction area of southeast Missouri (2011)

June 30, 2016

The isotopic composition of Pb in fugitive dust suspended by a vehicle from 13 unsurfaced roads in Missouri was measured to identify the source of Pb within an established long-term mining area. A three end member model using 207Pb/206Pb and concentration as tracers resulted in fugitive dust samples plotting in the mixing field of well characterized heterogeneous end members. End members selected for this investigation include the 207Pb/206Pb for 1) a Pb-mixture representing mine tailings, 2) aerosol Pb impacted soils within close proximity to the Buick secondary recycling smelter, and 3) an average of soils, rock cores and drill cuttings representing the background characteristics. Aqua regia total concentrations and 207Pb/206Pb of mining area dust suggest that 35.4- 84.3% of the source Pb in dust is associated with the mine tailings mixture, 9.1 to 52.7% is associated with the smelter mixture, and 0 to 21.6% is associated with background materials. Isotope ratios varied minimally within the operational phases of sequential extraction suggesting that mixing of all three Pb-mixtures occurs throughout. Labile forms of Pb were attributed to all three end members. The extractable carbonate phase had as much as 96.6% of the total concentration associated with mine tailings, 51.8% associated with smelter deposition, and 34.2% with background. The next most labile geochemical phase (Fe + Mn Oxides) showed similar results with as much as 85.3 % associated with mine tailings, 56.8% associated with smelter deposition, and 4.2% associated with the background soil.

Publication Year 2016
Title Pb isotope measurements of road dusts and background geologic materials in the Viburnum Trend resource extraction area of southeast Missouri (2011)
DOI 10.5066/F7HX19TF
Authors Emitt C. Witt III, Michael Pribil, John P. Hogan, David J. Wronkiewicz
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Asset Identifier Service (AIS)
USGS Organization National Geospatial Program
Rights This work is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal
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