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The Leading Edge; August 2001; v. 20; no. 8; p. 886-889; DOI: 10.1190/1.1487301
© 2001 Society of Exploration Geophysicists
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High-resolution magnetic mapping of contaminated sediments in urbanized environments

Joe Boyce, Matt Pozza and Bill Morris

McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Corresponding author: J Boyce, boycej@mcmaster.ca

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

The remediation of contaminated sediments in industrialized harbors and waterways is a growing environmental concern in North America. More than 100 marine ports and 42 inland harbors in the Great Lakes basins are currently listed by U.S. and Canadian regulatory agencies as having severe habitat and water-quality impairments due to bottom-sediment toxicity. Current approaches to remediation include sediment dredging and removal, capping with clean sediment, and in-situ treatment with oxidants.

Regardless of the remediation approach employed, a major requirement for such projects is detailed mapping of contaminated sediment distribution, thickness, and pollutant concentrations. Conventional practice is to estimate sediment properties and pollutant levels by interpolation from a limited number of bottom core samples. However, even with relatively dense borehole spacing, this approach can lead to significant errors in estimating the distribution and total volume of sediments requiring cleanup. Core sampling and chemical analysis can also be prohibitively expensive and impractical in large contaminated basins. A geophysical approach is to use magnetic methods to remotely map the distribution of urban source sediments in coastal areas.

In this paper we highlight the preliminary results of a pilot project which is evaluating the use of magnetic property measurements for mapping contaminated harbors and waterways in western Lake Ontario (Figure 1).


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  		Figure 1. Map of Hamilton Harbour study area showing magnetic survey track lines.

 

   Magnetic property measurements of contaminated sediments
 
Contaminated sediments in industrialized harbors and rivers are often characterized by elevated levels of magnetic oxides (principally magnetite) produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Following release into the atmosphere by combustion, the magnetic particles are deposited in lakes and rivers and ultimately become part of the sediment column. A number of studies have demonstrated that measurement of the magnetic susceptibility ({kappa}) of bottom sediments in lakes and rivers can provide a useful indicator of the presence of urban . . . [Full Text of this Article]






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