Contamination of heavy metals in the suspended and surface sediment of the Gulf of Cadiz (Spain): The role of sources, currents, pathways and sinks
| Type | Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 1995 | ||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||
| Author(s) | Palanques A, Diaz Ji, Farran M | ||||||||
| Source | Oceanologica Acta (0399-1784) (Gauthier-Villars), 1995 , Vol. 18 , N. 4 , P. 469-477 | ||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 58 | ||||||||
| Abstract | The Gulf of Cadiz has been affected by contamination from terrestrial mining activities (copper and pyrites) since the times of the Tartesians and Romans. This activity has drastically increased during the past century. Industries implanted during recent decades have supplied another input of contaminants to the marine system. Most of the contaminants are discharged into rivers or in the littoral area, but some contaminated industrial waste was dumped on the continental slope from ships until 1990. Sediment from the continental margin has been sampled to study the heavy metal contamination on the sea bed. The strongest heavy metal anomalies were detected on the continental shelf near the mouths of the Guadiana and Tinto-Odiel Rivers and on the continental slope near the head of some submarine canyons. Continental shelf anomalies are associated with flocculation processes in the marine water-freshwater interface. The contaminated river particles that remain suspended in the water column are transported by advective or diffusive processes, transferred to the slope, and reoriented by the Mediterranean outflow. They can accumulate in the slope mud patch, where bottom currents decrease, or can follow the Mediterranean outflow and reach deeper Atlantic areas. | ||||||||
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