Rare Earth Element and Yttrium Variability in South East Queensland Waterways

Abstract

We present data for the rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) in the National Research Council of Canada natural river water reference material SLRS-4 and 19 natural river waters from small catchments in South-East Queensland, Australia, by a direct ICP-MS method. The 0.22 lm filtered river water samples show a large degree of variability in both the REY concentration, e.g., La varies from 13 to 1157 ppt, and shape of the alluvial-sediment-normalised REY patterns with different samples displaying light, middle or heavy rare earth enrichment. In addition, a spatial study was undertaken along the freshwater section of Beerburrum Creek, which demonstrates that $75% of the total REYs in this waterway are removed prior to estuarine mixing without evidence of fractionation.

87Sr/86Sr and trace element mapping of geosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere interactions: A case study in Ireland

“…Aquatic fractionation is unlikely to explain the pervasive streamwater-like features, such as the high Y/Ho ratios in the range of 33-45, consistent negative Ce anomaly, and low Prn/Ybn compared to larger river systems (Elderfield et al, 1990), since Ce and Y are not expected to fractionate significantly in freshwater (Lawrence et al, 2006a(Lawrence et al, , 2006bMöller et al, 2003). The primary control on the streamwater signatures is interpreted to reflect a predominance of carbonate in the catchments (either bedrock or surficial sediments), such that the streamwaters inherit the palaeo-ocean chemistry from which the carbonate was precipitated.…”

“…In such cases, this similarity indicates that the relative abundances of the REE+Y are not markedly fractionated during weathering and aqueous transport. However, at a finer scale the REE+Y patterns of smaller streams or rivers often broadly reflect the predominant lithology in the catchments and allow these elements to be exploited as a tracer of water source and mixing (Lawrence et al, 2006a(Lawrence et al, , 2006bSadeghi et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2003). Groundwater and river/streamwater associated with marinederived carbonate-rich catchments often exhibit LREE depleted patterns that resemble seawater (e.g.…”

“…Experiments were run following the method outlined initially by Eggins et al (1997), with some adaptations to the method for different sample matrices and instrument configurations as reported elsewhere (e.g. Babechuk et al, 2010 for silicate rocks; Lawrence et al, 2006aLawrence et al, , 2006b for natural waters). Processing of instrument response for signal suppression, drift, blank and interference correction, and calibration were performed offline (e.g., Ulrich et al, 2010).…”

“…Experiment specific and long-term compiled trace element abundances determined for several standard reference materials are used to constrain the intermediate method precision at 3% RSD (1s) or better (≤1% for the REE) for the reported analytes and monitor accuracy (e.g. Babechuk and Kamber, 2011;Lawrence et al, 2006a). A notable exception is that in waters bearing a significant abundance of Ba and very little Eu (i.e., a high Ba/Eu ratio), the final determination of Eu may be hindered from BaO + production (Lawrence et al, 2006); in these cases, Eu data are not reported.…”

Simultaneous determinations of zirconium, hafnium, yttrium and lanthanides in seawater according to a co-precipitation technique onto iron-hydroxide

“…La It is probable that NASS-6, a new reference material, is not affected by the contamination that, according to authors, was responsible for the Sm over-abundance in CASS-2, CASS-3, NASS-2, NASS-4 and NASS-5 [29][30][31][32][33][34].…”