Contamination records of sediments by heavy metals in a mining-impacted dam

Alexandre Parker (1) , Alexandra Courtin-Nomade (1) , François Bordas (1) , Valentin Robin (1) , Emmanuel Malet (2) , Bernard Fanget (2) , Cécile Pignol (2) , Anne-Lise Develle (2) , Pierre Sabatier (2)

1 GRESE - Groupement de Recherche Eau, Sol, Environnement
2 EDYTEM - Environnements, Dynamiques et Territoires de Montagne

Dams represent favorable contexts for sediments accumulation in large volumes (typical several cm.y-1 up to 200 cm.y-1 for some Asian streams). These sedimentary reservoirs may represent a great environmental issue as they may constitute sinks for Metallic Elements (ME). Dam contexts allow studying the temporal evolution of contaminated sediments transfers (and ME) by different mechanisms (e.g., flood events), notably by resuspension and homogenization processes.• This study has been focussed on a watershed mainly affected by past mining activities (± 6 t of Ag and ± 6000 t of Pb were extracted until the 19th century), where sediments have been accumulated

Domaines: Milieux et Changements globaux; Biodiversité et Ecologie; Ingénierie de l'environnement; Environnement et Société; Géographie

Alexandre Parker, Alexandra Courtin-Nomade, François Bordas, Valentin Robin, Emmanuel Malet, et al.. Contamination records of sediments by heavy metals in a mining-impacted dam. International Meeting of Sedimentology, 2017, Toulouse, France. ⟨hal-01879661⟩