Detection and Monitoring of REEs and Related Trace Elements with an Itrax™ Core Scanner in the Ría de Huelva (SW Spain)

Rodríguez-Germade, I.; Rubio, B.; Rey, D.; Borrego, J.

Detection and Monitoring of REEs and Related Trace Elements with an Itrax™ Core Scanner in the Ría de Huelva (SW Spain)

2015

Rodríguez-Germade, I. | Rubio, B. | Rey, D. | Borrego, J.

The Ría de Huelva is one of the most polluted areas in Western Europe because of the high acid mining activity together with the chemical industries located in its margins. This strong anthropogenic pressure results in the liberation of high concentrations of metals and rare earth elements (REEs) to the Ría. In this work, an Itrax™ Core Scanner (Itrax) has been used for the first time to detect and to study REEs distribution in a sediment core. Its high sensitivity (until 5 μg·g⁻¹for Er) was confirmed by comparing its semi-quantitative results with concentration values obtained from inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In this way, establishing equivalences between Itrax continuous data and concentration data have been possible to detect pollution levels caused by REEs and related trace elements along the whole sediment core reducing the discrete analyses and therefore saving time and money. Moreover, Itrax was confirmed as a fast screening and monitoring tool to study REEs fractionation patterns and to identify the environmental changes responsible of these patterns.

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