Reconstruction of mining activities in the Western Alps during the past 2500 years from natural archives

Carvalho, Filipe; Schulte, Lothar

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141208

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…As Pb isotopes do not fractionate during ore smelting (Baron et al, 2006;Cui and Wu, 2011;Shiel et al, 2010), the observed Pb enrichment likely results from the deposition of atmospheric fallouts emitted during smelting of the Peisey-Nancroix Pb-rich ore, 7 km upwind. Such a recording of local mining activity in lake sediments is consistent with the literature (Carvalho and Schulte, 2020;Elbaz-Poulichet et al, 2020).…”

Section: Recording Of Local Ore Smelting Activitiessupporting

confidence: 91%

The legacy of metallurgical atmospheric contamination in a mountainous catchment: A delayed response of Pb contamination

Guillevic

Arnaud

Rossi

et al. 2023

Science of The Total Environment

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Section: Recording Of Local Ore Smelting Activitiessupporting

confidence: 91%

The legacy of metallurgical atmospheric contamination in a mountainous catchment: A delayed response of Pb contamination

Guillevic

Arnaud

Rossi

et al. 2023

Science of The Total Environment

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“…[52]. There are also numerous minerals containing REE [52], for example, lovchorrite (Na(Ca,Na) 2 (Ca,Ce) 4 The distribution profiles of all REE are very similar (except for Sc, the content of which decreases from background to surface layers), and the vertical distribution of the light REE content in the sediments of Lake Bolshoy Vudjavr are shown in Figure 7 as an example. A similar distribution of all REE (with the exception of Sc) is indicated by the correlation coefficient between REE, which in most cases, is equal to 1.00.…”

Section: Rare Earth Elements (Ree)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The negative impact of human activities, including the extraction of minerals, on the environment has been known since the Iron Age and the Roman Empire [1][2][3]. Evidence of anthropogenic metal pollution associated with mining and metallurgical activities dates back to at least 5000 years ago [4][5][6]. The pollution level rose during ancient Greek and Roman times [7] as a consequence of the increased mining, smelting, and trading activities [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Paleolimnological Perspective on Arctic Mountain Lake Pollution

Dauvalter

Slukovskii

Denisov

et al. 2022

Water

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The chemical composition of sediments from the Arctic mountain Lake Bolshoy Vudjavr, situated in the western part of the Russian Arctic zone, was studied. The lake has been under intense anthropogenic load for more than 90 years since the development of the richest apatite–nepheline deposits in the world started. A 27 cm thick sediment core was sampled in the central part of the lake at the maximum depth of 37.4 m. The concentrations of more than 50 elements were analyzed by the mass spectral method, ICP-MS. The lake sedimentation rate established from the change in the content of the radioactive isotope 210Pb was 2.3 mm/yr. The effluent from apatite–nepheline production and atmospheric fallout enrich the sediments of Lake Bolshoy Vudjavr with alkali and alkaline earth metals, N, P, Mn, Fe, Al compounds, rare earth elements, and trace elements (Sb, Cu, Zn, Pb, Bi, Nb, Ta, Th). Analysis of the forms of elements in the lake sediments showed that the studied elements are mainly found in stable fractions—mineral, acid-soluble, and associated with organic matter. The pollution of the sediments of Lake Bolshoy Vudjavr was assessed by the integral index PLI (Pollution Load Index) and CF (contamination factor). The PLI value sharply increased after the “Apatite” Plant had been launched and a large amount of wastewater from the mines had been released into the lake. The highest PLI values were detected in the sediment layers accumulated during the period 1990s–2000s. Sb (18.2), P (10.3), Sr (7.8), and La (6.0) have the maximum CF values among all the studied elements.

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“…Changes in the amount of atmospheric lead in high-resolution Arctic and alpine ice-cores have been linked to the mining and smelting of raw ores, especially silver, in Europe. Such records have proved to be an indicator of prosperity and crisis (i.e., in times of prosperity, pollution levels were high) over the past two millennia (Hong et al, 1994;Rosman et al, 1997;More et al, 2017;Loveluck et al, 2018;McConnell et al, 2018McConnell et al, , 2019Carvalho and Schulte, 2021). We employ the lead pollution series of McConnell et al (2019) as proxies for mining activity in western Europe and central Europe.…”

Section: Other Datasets Used For Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates

et al. 2022

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Although variations in building activity are a useful indicator of societal well-being and demographic development, historical datasets for larger regions and longer periods are still rare. Here, we present 54,045 annually precise dendrochronological felling dates from historical construction timber from across most of Europe between 1250 and 1699 CE to infer variations in building activity. We use geostatistical techniques to compare spatiotemporal dynamics in past European building activity against independent demographic, economic, social and climatic data. We show that the felling dates capture major geographical patterns of demographic trends, especially in regions with dense data coverage. A particularly strong negative association is found between grain prices and the number of felling dates. In addition, a significant positive association is found between the number of felling dates and mining activity. These strong associations, with well-known macro-economic indicators from pre-industrial Europe, corroborate the use of felling dates as an independent source for exploring large-scale fluctuations of societal well-being and demographic development. Three prominent examples are the building boom in the Hanseatic League region of northeastern Germany during the 13th century, the onset of the Late Medieval Crisis in much of Europe c. 1300, and the cessation of building activity in large parts of central Europe during armed conflicts such as the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648 CE). Despite new insights gained from our European-wide felling date inventory, further studies are needed to investigate changes in construction activity of high versus low status buildings, and of urban versus rural buildings, and to compare those results with a variety of historical documentary sources and natural proxy archives.

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Reconstruction of mining activities in the Western Alps during the past 2500 years from natural archives

Cited by 7 publications

References 96 publications

The legacy of metallurgical atmospheric contamination in a mountainous catchment: A delayed response of Pb contamination

The legacy of metallurgical atmospheric contamination in a mountainous catchment: A delayed response of Pb contamination

A Paleolimnological Perspective on Arctic Mountain Lake Pollution

Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates

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