Rare earths release from dissolving atmospheric dust and their accumulation into crystallising halite: The Dead Sea example.

The industrial extraction of Y and lanthanides (hereafter defined as Rare Earth Elements, REE) often requires the achievement of leaching procedures removing these metals from primary rocks and their transfer in aqueous leachates or incorporated in newly forming soluble solids. These procedures are the most dangerous to the environment in relation to the composition of leachates. Hence, the recognition of natural settings where these processes currently occur, represents a worthy challenge for learning how to carry out similar industrial procedures under natural and more eco-friendly conditions.

Boron and lithium behaviour in river waters under semiarid climatic conditions.

Boron (B) and Lithium (Li) concentrations were studied in the Platani river, one of the most important catchments of South-Central Sicily which is under semiarid climatic conditions for roughly eight months to a year. In this area, evaporites result in potential B and Li sources for surface waters. Results from river waters have measured ionic strength values between 0.

WITHDRAWN: Special Issue on innovative methods for characterizing evolution and budgets in water - rock systems: A tribute to Tom Bullen and Stepan Shvartsev.

The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an article that has already been published, http://dx.doi.org/10.

The distribution of Rare Earth Elements discriminates the growth substrate of Vitis vinifera L.

Sustainable agricultural, food-related strategies and geographic traceability require understanding of the plant physiological response to stress potentially generated by contaminated soils. Here, we have investigated the effect of contaminated substrate on growth of Vitis vinifera L. plants analysing the distribution of full Rare Earth Elements (REE) spectra in different parts of the plant.

Trace element fractionation through halite crystallisation: Geochemical mechanisms and environmental implications.

Halite is an important mineral for industry, agriculture and food production. It crystallises during water evaporation, and the progressive increase of dissolved metal ions in the brine occurs simultaneously. Thus, halite exploitation may deliver metal ions into the environment and the mechanism of this trace element accumulation has to be studied.

Role of CO in low to medium enthalpy geothermal systems in the Central Betic Cordillera (Spain).

There is growing interest in geothermal energy, which is considered as an efficient energy solution to mitigate rising atmospheric CO. Besides known high enthalpy geothermal systems, increasing attention is paid to low temperature geothermal systems, as they are suitable for local use. Although geothermal production seems to be an environmentally advantageous renewable energy, it might result in significant CO emissions.

Behavior of rare earth elements in an aquifer perturbed by CO injection: Environmental implications.

Three cubic-meters of CO-saturated water was injected into a subsurface fractured aquifer in a post-mined area, using a push-pull test protocol. Groundwater samples were collected before and after CO-injection to quantify geochemical changes. CO-injection initially reduced the pH of water from 7.

Zr, Hf and REE distribution in river water under different ionic strength conditions.

The Platani River flowing in south-central Sicily, interacting with evaporite rocks, generates a wide range of ionic strength in the water catchment from 0.1 to 5.0molkg.

Rapid migration of CO-rich micro-fluids in calcite matrices.

The transport of supercritical fluids is a determining factor for several geological processes and fundamental in predicting natural resource accumulation and distribution. Calcite, ubiquitous in most geological environments, may contain supercritical CO trapped under the form of fluid inclusions that may move through grain boundaries affecting the rock physical properties. However, despite macroscopic evidence for this process, until recent it was not possible to characterize this process at the nano-scale due to the difficulty of such observations.

Nitrogen patterns in subsurface waters of the Yzeron stream: effect of combined sewer overflows and subsurface-surface water mixing.

Urbanization subjects streams to increased nitrogen loads. Therefore studying nitrogen forms at the interface between urban stream and groundwater is important for water resource management. In this study we report results on water δ(18)O and nitrogen forms in subsurface waters of a stream (Yzeron, France).

Relationship between lanthanide contents in aquatic turtles and environmental exposures.

Trace elements released in the environment during agricultural practices can be incorporated and accumulated in biological fluids and tissues of living organisms. The assessment of these exposures were carried out investigating lanthanide distributions in blood and exoskeleton samples collected from Emys trinacris turtle specimens coming from sites with anthropogenic discharge in western and south Sicily, along migration paths of many bird species from Africa to Europe. The data show a significant (Rxy=0.

Source and nature of inhaled atmospheric dust from trace element analyses of human bronchial fluids.

Rapid volcanic eruptions quickly ejecting large amounts of dust provoke the accumulation of heavy metals in people living in surrounding areas. Analyses of bronchoalveolar lavage samples (BAL) collected from people exposed to the paroxysmal 2001 Etna eruption revealed a strong enrichment of many toxic heavy metals. Comparing the BAL to the dust composition of southeastern Sicily, we found that only V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and U enrichment could be related to the volcanic event, whereas Ni, Cu, Cd, and Pb contents come from the dissolution of particles of anthropogenic origin.

Yttrium and lanthanides in human lung fluids, probing the exposure to atmospheric fallout.

Inhalation of airborne particles can produce crystallization of phosphatic microcrysts in intraaveolar areas of lungs, sometimes degenerating into pulmonary fibrosis. Results of this study indicate that these pathologies are induced by interactions between lung fluids and inhaled atmospheric dust in people exposed to volcanic dust ejected from Mount Etna in 2001. Here, the lung solid-liquid interaction is evaluated by the distribution of yttrium and lanthanides (YLn) in fluid bronchoalveolar lavages on selected individuals according the classical geochemical approaches.

Environmental impact of uranium mining and ore processing in the Lagoa Real District, Bahia, Brazil.

Uranium mining and processing at Lagoa Real (Bahia, Brazil) started in 2000. Hydrogeochemical monitoring carried out from 1999 to 2001 revealed generally good quality of the water resources outside and inside the mineralized area. No chemical contamination in waters for domestic uses was observed.

Mobility of heavy metals from tailings to stream waters in a mining activity contaminated site.

In this paper the results of a recent characterization of Rio Piscinas (SW of Sardinia, Italy) hydrological basin are reported. In such area (about 50 km2), previous mining activities caused a serious heavy metal contamination of surface waters, groundwater, soils and biota. Acid mine drainage phenomena were observed in the area.

Heavy metal coprecipitation with hydrozincite [Zn(5)(CO(3))(2)(OH)(6)] from mine waters caused by photosynthetic microorganisms.

An iron-poor stream of nearly neutral pH polluted by mine tailings has been investigated for a natural phenomenon responsible for the polishing of heavy metals in mine wastewaters. A white mineralized mat, which was determined to be hydrozincite [Zn(5)(CO(3))(2)(OH)(6)] by X-ray diffraction analysis, was observed in the stream sediments mainly in spring. The precipitate shows a total organic matter residue of 10% dry weight and contains high concentrations of Pb, Cd, Ni, Cu, and other metals.