On a global scale demand for the products of the extractive industries is ever increasing. Extraction of the targeted resource results in the concurrent production of a significant volume of waste ...material, including tailings, which are mixtures of crushed rock and processing fluids from mills, washeries or concentrators that remain after the extraction of economic metals, minerals, mineral fuels or coal. The volume of tailings is normally far in excess of the liberated resource, and the tailings often contain potentially hazardous contaminants. A priority for a reasonable and responsible mining organization must be to proactively isolate the tailings so as to forestall them from entering groundwaters, rivers, lakes and the wind. There is ample evidence that, should such tailings enter these environments they may contaminate food chains and drinking water. Furthermore, the tailings undergo physical and chemical change after they have been deposited. The chemical changes are most often a function of exposure to atmospheric oxidation and tends to make previously, perhaps safely held contaminants mobile and available. If the tailings are stored under water, contact with the atmosphere is substantially reduced, thereby forestalling oxygen-mediated chemical change. It is therefore accepted practice for tailings to be stored in isolated impoundments under water and behind dams. However, these dams frequently fail, releasing enormous quantities of tailings into river catchments. These accidents pose a serious threat to animal and human health and are of concern for extractive industries and the wider community. It is therefore of importance to understand the nature of the material held within these dams, what best safety practice is for these structures and, should the worst happen, what adverse effects such accidents might have on the wider environment and how these might be mitigated. This paper reviews these factors, covering the characteristics, types and magnitudes, environmental impacts, and remediation of mine tailings dam failures.
Long highly-resolved proxies for runoff are in high demand for hydrological forecasts and water management in arid Central Asia. An accurate (R
2
= 0.53) reconstruction of October-September ...discharge of the Ili River in Kazakhstan, 1779–2015, is developed from moisture-sensitive tree rings of spruce sampled in the Tian Shan Mountains. The fivefold extension of the gauged discharge record represents the variability of runoff in the Lake Balkhash Basin for the last 235 years. The reconstruction shows a 40 year long interval of low discharge preceded a recent high peak in the first decade of the 2000s followed by a decline to more recent levels of discharge not seen since the start of the gauged record. Most reconstructed flow extremes (± 2σ) occur outside the instrumental record (1936–2015) and predate the start of large dam construction (1969). Decadal variability of the Ili discharge corresponds well with hydrological records of other Eurasian internal drainages modeled with tree rings. Spectral analysis identifies variance peaks (highest near 42 year) consistent with main hemispheric oscillations of the Eurasian climatic system. Seasonal comparison of the Ili discharge with sea-level-pressure and geopotential height data suggests periods of high flow likely result from the increased contribution of snow to runoff associated with the interaction of Arctic air circulation with the Siberian High-Pressure System and North Atlantic Oscillation.
Floods in catchments affected by historical metal mining result in the remobilisation of large quantities of contaminated sediment from floodplain soils and old mine workings. This poses a ...significant threat to agricultural production and is preventing many European river catchments achieving a ‘good chemical and ecological status’, as demanded by the Water Framework Directive. Analysis of overbank sediment following widespread flooding in west Wales in June 2012 showed that flood sediments were contaminated above guideline pollution thresholds, in some samples by a factor of 82. Most significantly, silage produced from flood affected fields was found to contain up to 1900mgkg−1 of sediment associated Pb, which caused cattle poisoning and mortality. As a consequence of climate related increases in flooding this problem is likely to continue and intensify. Management of contaminated catchments requires a geomorphological approach to understand the spatial and temporal cycling of metals through the fluvial system.
•Pb concentrations in flood sediments exceed threshold values, in some samples by a factor of 82.•Contamination of animal feed caused blood Pb poisoning and mortality in cattle.•Climate change means that the events of summer 2012 are likely to continue and intensify.•A geomorphological approach is needed to understand metal flux in fluvial systems.
An estimated 23 million people live on floodplains affected by potentially dangerous concentrations of toxic waste derived from past and present metal mining activity. We analyzed the global ...dimensions of this hazard, particularly in regard to lead, zinc, copper, and arsenic, using a georeferenced global database detailing all known metal mining sites and intact and failed tailings storage facilities. We then used process-based and empirically tested modeling to produce a global assessment of metal mining contamination in river systems and the numbers of human populations and livestock exposed. Worldwide, metal mines affect 479,200 kilometers of river channels and 164,000 square kilometers of floodplains. The number of people exposed to contamination sourced from long-term discharge of mining waste into rivers is almost 50 times greater than the number directly affected by tailings dam failures.
Editor’s summary
Mining for metals produces waste containing toxic elements such as mercury and arsenic. Macklin
et al
. compiled global data on the locations of active and inactive metal mines and tailings dams, which hold mine waste. Using hydrologic models, they assessed river system contamination from mines and failed tailings dams and determined the floodplains, people, and livestock that could be affected. Over 23 million people live on the ~164,000 square kilometers of floodplains affected by mining. Although tailings dam failures have massive local impacts, they are estimated to affect far fewer people than baseline contamination from current or past mining activities. Increased global data and monitoring are needed to fully understand the ecological and health impacts of this extractive industry. —Bianca Lopez
Global levels of river and floodplain metal contamination from active and inactive metal mining sites are revealed.
Perivascular spaces are an emerging marker of small vessel disease. Perivascular spaces in the centrum semiovale have been associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy. However, a direct topographical ...relationship between dilated perivascular spaces and cerebral amyloid angiopathy severity has not been established. We examined this association using post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging in five cases with evidence of cerebral amyloid angiopathy pathology. Juxtacortical perivascular spaces dilation was evaluated on T2 images and related to cerebral amyloid angiopathy severity in overlying cortical areas on 34 tissue sections stained for Amyloid β. Degree of perivascular spaces dilation was significantly associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy severity (odds ratio = 3.3, 95% confidence interval 1.3–7.9, p = 0.011). Thus, dilated juxtacortical perivascular spaces are a promising neuroimaging marker of cerebral amyloid angiopathy severity.
Abstract
Continental-scale models of malaria climate suitability typically couple well-established temperature-response models with basic estimates of vector habitat availability using rainfall as a ...proxy. Here we show that across continental Africa, the estimated geographic range of climatic suitability for malaria transmission is more sensitive to the precipitation threshold than the thermal response curve applied. To address this problem we use downscaled daily climate predictions from seven GCMs to run a continental-scale hydrological model for a process-based representation of mosquito breeding habitat availability. A more complex pattern of malaria suitability emerges as water is routed through drainage networks and river corridors serve as year-round transmission foci. The estimated hydro-climatically suitable area for stable malaria transmission is smaller than previous models suggest and shows only a very small increase in state-of-the-art future climate scenarios. However, bigger geographical shifts are observed than with most rainfall threshold models and the pattern of that shift is very different when using a hydrological model to estimate surface water availability for vector breeding.
The CAESAR (Cellular Automaton Evolutionary Slope And River) model is used to demonstrate significant differences in coarse sediment transfer and alluviation in medium sized catchments when ...responding to identical Holocene environmental changes. Simulations for four U.K. basins (the Rivers Swale, Ure, Nidd and Wharfe) shows that catchment response, driven by climate and conditioned by land cover changes, is synchronous but varies in magnitude. There are bursts of sediment transfer activity, generally of rapid removal but with some sediment accumulation ‘spikes’, with longer periods of slow removal or accumulation of sediment in different valley reaches. Within catchments, reach sensitivity to environmental change varies considerably: some periods are only recorded in some reaches, whilst higher potential sensitivity typically occurs in the piedmont areas of the catchments modelled here. These differential responses appear to be highly non-linear and may relate to the passage of sediment waves, by variable local sediment storage and availability, and by large- and small-scale thresholds for sediment transfer within each catchment. Differential response has major implications for modelling fluvial systems and the interpretation of field data. Model results are compared with the record of dated alluvial deposits in the modelled catchments.
As the result of current and historical metal mining, river channels and floodplains in many parts of the world have become contaminated by metal-rich waste in concentrations that may pose a hazard ...to human livelihoods and sustainable development. Environmental and human health impacts commonly arise because of the prolonged residence time of heavy metals in river sediments and alluvial soils and their bioaccumulatory nature in plants and animals. This paper considers how an understanding of the processes of sediment-associated metal dispersion in rivers, and the space and timescales over which they operate, can be used in a practical way to help river basin managers more effectively control and remediate catchments affected by current and historical metal mining. A geomorphological approach to the management of rivers contaminated by metals is outlined and four emerging research themes are highlighted and critically reviewed. These are: (1) response and recovery of river systems following the failures of major tailings dams; (2) effects of flooding on river contamination and the sustainable use of floodplains; (3) new developments in isotopic fingerprinting, remote sensing and numerical modelling for identifying the sources of contaminant metals and for mapping the spatial distribution of contaminants in river channels and floodplains; and (4) current approaches to the remediation of river basins affected by mining, appraised in light of the European Union's Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). Future opportunities for geomorphologically-based assessments of mining-affected catchments are also identified.
The fluvial record of climate change Macklin, M. G.; Lewin, J.; Woodward, J. C.
Philosophical transactions - Royal Society. Mathematical, Physical and engineering sciences/Philosophical transactions - Royal Society. Mathematical, physical and engineering sciences,
05/2012, Letnik:
370, Številka:
1966
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Fluvial landforms and sediments can be used to reconstruct past hydrological conditions over different time scales once allowance has been made for tectonic, base-level and human complications. Field ...stratigraphic evidence is explored here at three time scales: the later Pleistocene, the Holocene, and the historical and instrumental period. New data from a range of field studies demonstrate that Croll-Milankovitch forcing, Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, enhanced monsoon circulation, millennial- to centennial-scale climate variability within the Holocene (probably associated with solar forcing and deep ocean circulation) and flood-event variability in recent centuries can all be discerned in the fluvial record. Although very significant advances have been made in river system and climate change research in recent years, the potential of fluvial palaeohydrology has yet to be fully realized, to the detriment of climatology, public health, resource management and river engineering.
Extreme rainfall and flood events in steep upland catchments leave geomorphological traces of their occurrence in the form of boulder berms, debris cones, and alluvial fans. Constraining the age of ...these features is critical to understanding (i) landscape evolution in response to past, present, and future climate changes; and (ii) the magnitude–frequency of extreme, ungauged floods in small upland catchments. This research focuses on the Cambrian Mountains of Wales, UK, where lichenometric dating of geomorphological features and palaeohydrological reconstructions is combined with climatological data and documentary flood records. Our new data from Wales highlight a distinct flood-rich period between 1900 and 1960, similar to many other UK lichen-dated records. However, this study sheds new light on the underlying climatic controls on upland flooding in small catchments. Although floods can occur in any season, their timing is best explained by the Summer North Atlantic Oscillation (SNAO) and shifts between negative (wetter than average conditions with regular cyclonic flow and flooding) and positive phases (drier than average conditions with less frequent cyclonic flow and flooding), which vary from individual summers to decadal and multidecadal periods. Recent wet summer weather, flooding, and boulder-berm deposition in the UK (2007–2012) are related to a pronounced negative phase shift of the SNAO. There is also increasing evidence that recent summer weather extremes in the mid-latitudes may be related to Arctic amplification and rapid sea ice loss. If this is the case, continuing and future climate change is likely to mean that (i) unusual weather patterns become more frequent; and (ii) upland UK catchments will experience heightened flood risk and significant geomorphological changes.
•Lichenometry was used to date geomorphological features in small mountain catchments.•The period 1900–1960 was especially flood-rich.•Flood timing is controlled by the Summer North Atlantic Oscillation.•Recent flooding may be linked to Arctic amplification.
PDF
