Marine vs Fluvial Bottom Mud in the Scheldt Estuary

Verlaan, Philomène

doi:10.1006/ecss.1999.0599

Cited by 34 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…According to Salomons (1975), the proportion of carbonate derived from a marine environment was more than 40% for the Hollands Diep, about 70% for the Haringvliet and up to 90% for the Ems estuary. Similarly, the results of Verlaan et al (1998) show that Ca as carbonate in suspended matter of the Scheldt estuary is predominantly of marine origin and its influence extends throughout the entire brackish-water zone.…”

Section: Provenance Of Carbonatesmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…This is attributed to resuspension of recent reduced sediments, erosion of non-recent sediments and dredging activities. Both Verlaan et al (1998) and Zwolsman & Van Eck (1999) noted that the maximum pyrite content is found in the upper, brackish part of the Scheldt estuary (between Rupelmonde and the Dutch-Belgian border), where the salinity is about 5‰. Data from Oenema (1990a) indicate that the pyrite content in anoxic recent marine sediments can be up to 2-3%, and attribute this to in situ sulphidation.…”

Section: Fe Sulphidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The mineralogy of suspended matter, fresh and Cenozoic sediments in the fluvio-deltaic Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt–Ems area, the Netherlands: An overview and review

Griffioen

Klaver

Westerhoff

2016

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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Minerals are the building blocks of clastic sediments and play an important role with respect to the physico-chemical properties of the sediment and the lithostratigraphy of sediments. This paper aims to provide an overview of the mineralogy (including solid organic matter) of sediments as well as suspended matter as found in the Netherlands (and some parts of Belgium). The work is based on a review of the scientific literature published over more than 100 years. Cenozoic sediments are addressed together with suspended matter and recent sediments of the surface water systems because they form a geoscientific continuum from material subject to transport via recently settled to aged material. Most attention is paid to heavy minerals, clay minerals, feldspars, Ca carbonates, reactive Fe minerals (oxides, siderite, sulphides, glauconite) and solid organic matter because they represent the dominant minerals and their properties form a main issue in subsurface and water management. When possible and relevant, the amounts, provenance, relationship with grain size distribution, early diagenesis and palaeohydrological evolution are described. Tables with statistical data about the mineral contents and isotopic composition of carbonates and organic matter are presented as overviews. The review on the mineralogy of Dutch fluvial and marine environments is more extensive than that for the other sedimentary environments because the first two have been studied much more intensively than the others and they also form the larger part of the Dutch deposits. The focus is on the natural background mineralogy of Dutch sediments, but this is hard for recent sediments, largely because the massive hydraulic infrastructure present in the Netherlands has probably also affected the mineralogy and geochemistry of sediments deposited in recent centuries. Many findings are summarised, several of which lead to more general insights for the Dutch situation. Ca carbonates in sediments often have several provenances and thus must be considered as mixtures. Dolomite is commonly present in addition to calcite. The importance of biotite as weatherable mica is unclear. Weathering of heavy minerals plays some role but it is unclear in which way it affects the heavy mineral associations. Clays are usually dominated by illite, smectite and their interstratified variant, while kaolinite is usually below 20% and chlorite below 5%. Vermiculite is a minor constituent in fluvial clays and its illitisation presumably happens during early diagenesis in the marine environment. Opaque Fe hydroxides can be present in addition to Fe oxyhydroxide coatings and both will play a role in redox chemistry as reactive Fe minerals. Feldspars in marine sediments must be present but they have not been properly studied. The genesis of rattle stones and carbonate concretions has not been completely elucidated. The fraction of terrigeneous organic matter in estuarine and coastal marine sediments is substantial. The available data and information are spread irregularly over the country and the reviewed information discussed in this paper is derived from relatively small-scale studies dealing with a limited amount of analysed samples. Much information is available from the Scheldt estuaries in the southwestern part of the Netherlands partly due to the severe contamination of the Western Scheldt in recent decades.

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Section: Provenance Of Carbonatesmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Fe Sulphidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The mineralogy of suspended matter, fresh and Cenozoic sediments in the fluvio-deltaic Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt–Ems area, the Netherlands: An overview and review

Griffioen

Klaver

Westerhoff

2016

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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“…The upper layers of the sediment are subjected to a limited resuspension and may release pollutants to the water column (Tessier et al, 1989;Boughriet et al, 1992). Resuspended matter transported in the Scheldt river will be trapped in the high turbitity zone around Antwerp (Verlaan, 2000;Regnier & Wollast, 1993). This area is dredged yearly and the sediment is disposed in overdepths or on-land at confined disposal sites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dredged sediments of the river Scheldt are characterised by an initially very high organic matter content compared to normal contents in upland soils in this region. Even in the Scheldt estuary, the organic fraction of fluvial material is considerably higher than in marine material (Verlaan et al, 1998). A consequence of landfilling is a decrease in organic matter contents with time which is strongly influenced by landuse (Singh et al, 1998;Ruban et al, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies about the upstream part in contrast are scarce, although most of the heavy metal input in the estuary is caused by upstream pollution (Regnier & Wollast, 1993). In suspended matter and bottom sediments of the Scheldt Estuary, Verlaan et al (1998) and Verlaan (2000) could distinguish between a fraction of fluvial origin and a fraction of marine origin because of the elevated concentrations of Cr, Pb, Zn, Cu and Cd in the former. Both water quality, suspended matter quality and sediment quality is improving in the Scheldt estuary since two decades (Zwolsman, 1999;Zwolsman et al, 1996, Baeyens, 1998.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Heavy metal contents in surface soils along the Upper Scheldt river (Belgium) affected by historical upland disposal of dredged materials

Vandecasteele

Vos

Tack

2002

The Science of The Total Environment

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For several decades, periodical dredging of river sediments has been necessary to allow for shipping traffic on the river Scheldt. Sediments were disposed along the shores in the alluvial plain without concern for the potential presence of contaminants. The aim of this study was to survey the alluvial plains of the Upper Scheldt river in Belgium for the presence of old dredged sediment landfills, and to appraise the heavy metal contamination at these sites. Up to 82% of the areas that were affected by dredged sediment disposal was found to be polluted by at least one of the metals Cd, Cr, Zn or Pb. Concentrations of Cd, Cr and Zn were, in 10% of the cases, higher than 26, 1900 and 2800 mg/kg, respectively. Cu and Ni concentrations were of no environmental concern on any site. Trends in metal concentrations as a function of location and time were explored and discussed. The highest average concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn were found in the most downstream quarter of the Upper Scheldt. Contents of Pb and Cu were significantly lower for sediments disposed after 1965, but no indication for improvement of the sediment quality with time was observed for Cd, Cr and Zn. The pollution levels encountered warrant for caution as most of the soils affected by historical dredged sediment disposal are currently in use for agriculture, nature development or forestry.

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Investigations on Mineralogical and Chemical Composition of Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) in the Odra Estuary

Breitenbach¹,

Lampe

Leipe

1999

Acta hydrochim. hydrobiol.

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Marine vs Fluvial Bottom Mud in the Scheldt Estuary

Cited by 34 publications

References 26 publications

The mineralogy of suspended matter, fresh and Cenozoic sediments in the fluvio-deltaic Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt–Ems area, the Netherlands: An overview and review

The mineralogy of suspended matter, fresh and Cenozoic sediments in the fluvio-deltaic Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt–Ems area, the Netherlands: An overview and review

Heavy metal contents in surface soils along the Upper Scheldt river (Belgium) affected by historical upland disposal of dredged materials

Investigations on Mineralogical and Chemical Composition of Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) in the Odra Estuary

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