Chemical Analysis of Sedimentary Records
Chemostratigraphy of Recent Floodplain Sediments
Contact person: T. Matys Grygar, Analytical Laboratory
Overbank fines of the Morava River in the Litovel and Straznice areas have increased concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn) and magnetic particles in the top (several cm to ~0.5 m). Dating of this layer by interpolation of 14C dates and 210Pb and 137Cs activities shows that it has been deposited in the last 50 to 100 years, with the most probable onset in the turnover of 19th and 20th centuries. The relative enrichment of magnetic particles and heavy metals in this layer is 150-250 % with respect to the natural background. Because of possible post-depositional migrations and natural variability of fluvial sediments, the identification of that polluted layer is not always a trivial task, but if it is managed, the sediment pollution can be used for dating. The work also affords reconstruction of historical pollution levels in watersheds of rivers.
Since 2011 we apply the approaches developed in the Morava floodplain to the overbank sediments of the Jizera River (polluted mainly by the industrial city of Mlada Boleslav) and the Ploucnice River (polluted mainly due to underground uranium leaching in the Ralsko area), both in fruitful collaboration with J.E. Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem.
Funding
- Grant Agency of AS CR, IAAX00130801 (2008-2011)
- Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, OP VK CZ.1.07.2.3.00/30.0028 (2011-2014)
Selected papers
- T. Grygar, I. Svetlik, L. Lisa, L. Koptikova, A. Bajer, D.S. Wray, V. Ettler, M. Mihaljevic, T. Novakova, M. Koubova, J. Novak, Z. Macka, M. Smetana, Geochemical tools for the stratigraphic correlation of floodplain deposits of the Morava River in Straznicke Pomoravi, Czech Republic from the last millennium, Catena 80 (2010) 106-121
- T. Matys Grygar, T. Novakova, M. Mihaljevic, L. Strnad, I. Svetlik, L. Koptikova, L. Lisa, R. Brazdil, Z. Macka, Z. Stachon, H. Svitavska-Svobodova, D.S. Wray, Surprisingly small increase of the sedimentation rate in the floodplain of Morava River in the Strážnice area, Czech Republic, in the last 1300 years, Catena, 86 (2011) 192-207
- T. Matys Grygar, J. Sedlacek, O. Babek, T. Novakova, L. Strnad, M. Mihaljevic, Regional Contamination of Moravia (South-Eastern Czech Republic): Temporal Shift of Pb and Zn Loading in Fluvial Sediments, Water Air & Soil Pollution 223 (2012) 739-753
Chemostratigraphy of Sediments in More Remote Geological Past
Contact person: T. Matys Grygar, Analytical Laboratory
Fine sediments containing siliciclastics are in a focus of studies aimed at palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, i.e. palaeoclimate and/or palaeogeography. Our work on this topic has started in 2000 by analyses of basinal sediments, particularly loess and paleosol profiles using voltammetry of microparticles and diffuse reflectance UV-Vis spectroscopy. Since 2004 we worked on the sediment cores from Lake Baikal (the last 300 thousand years) and then Aral Sea (the last 2 thousand years). The study on Msec palaeolake (the upper Pennsylvanian) included also X-ray fluorescence and clay mineral analyses. Since 2009 our work is focused on several hundred metres thick fluvial, deltaic and lacustrine clays in the Most Basin (the Early Miocene, the figure on the left). We use proxy analytical methods, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and cation exchange capacity analysis, but the interpretation must include results by other techniques obtained in collaborating workplaces (Geological Institute AS CR and Institute of Geophysics, Prague). The main achievement of this work is a novel stratigraphic scheme for the Most Formation based on identification of geochemical markers with whole-basin extent. Our chemostratigraphy tolls are currently also applied to the identification of element signatures in marine carbonatic sediments related to the Hangenberg bioevent near the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary.
Funding
- Severoceske Doly (North Bohemian Coal Mines), joint stock company, contracts in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
- Czech Science Foundation, P210/11/1357 Libkovice Member of Most Formation: lacustrine palaeoenvironmental archive of Burdigalian (the Early Miocene) (2011-2013)
- Czech Science Foundation, P210/11/1891 Devonian-Carboniferous boundary in Europe –interdisciplinary approach (2011-2014)
Selected Papers
- T. Grygar, P. Bezdicka, D. Hradil, M. Hruskova, K. Novotna, J. Kadlec, P. Pruner, H. Oberhansli, Characterization of expandable clay minerals in Lake Baikal sediments by thermal dehydration and cation exchange, Clays Clay Miner. 53 (2005) 389-400
- T. Grygar, A. Blahova, D. Hradil, P. Bezdicka, J. Kadlec, P. Schnabl, G. Swann, H. Oberhansli,Lake Baikal climatic record between 310 and 50 ky BP: Interplay between diatoms, watershed weathering and orbital forcing, Palaeo Palaeo Palaeo 250 (2007) 50–67
- A. Piskova, T. Grygar, J. Vesela, H. Oberhansli, Diatom assemblage variations in the Aral Sea core C2/2004 over the past two millennia, Fottea 9 (2009) 333-342
- O. Babek, J. Chlachula, T. Matys Grygar, Non-magnetic indicators of pedogenesis related to loess magnetic enhancement and depletion: Examples from the Czech Republic and southern Siberia, Quaternary Science Reviews, 30 (2011) 967-979
- H. Oberhansli, K. Novotna, A. Piskova, S. Chabrillat, D.K. Nourgaliev, A.K. Kurbaniyazov, T. Matys Grygar, Variability in precipitation, temperature and river runoff in W Central Asia during the past ~2000 yrs, Global Planet. Change 76 (2011) 95-104
- T. Matys Grygar, K. Mach, Regional chemostratigraphic key horizons in the macrofossil-barren siliciclastic lower Miocene lacustrine sediments (Most Basin, Eger Graben, Czech Republic), in print