Assessment of heavy metal pollution in Vistula river (Poland) sediments by using magnetic methods

The present study evaluated the level of heavy metal (HM) pollution in Vistula river sediments in a highly urbanized Warsaw agglomeration (Poland). Magnetometry was used to assess the pollution level by measuring the fine fractions (0.071 mm and <0.071 mm) of sediments collected from the surface layer of the riverbank. The magnetic methods (e.g., mass magnetic susceptibility χ, temperature-dependence magnetic susceptibility, and hysteresis loop parameters) were supplemented by microscopy observations and chemical element analyses. The results showed the local impact of Warsaw’s activity on the level of HM pollution, indicated by the maximum concentrations of magnetic particles and HM in the city center. The sediment fraction <0.071 mm was dominated by magnetite and by a large amount of spherical-shaped anthropogenic magnetic particles. The pollution from the center of Warsaw was transported down-river over a relatively short distance of approximately 11 km. There was a gradual decrease in the concentrations of magnetic particles and HM in areas located to the north of the city center (down-river); furthermore, χ and concentrations of HM did not decrease to the values observed for the area to the south of Warsaw (up-river). The study showed two possible sources of sediment pollution: traffic-related and heat and power plant emissions. The influence of an additional source of pollution cannot be excluded as the amount of spherules in the sediments at the center was extremely high. The present study demonstrates that magnetometry has a practical application in detecting and mapping HM pollution in river systems

SKOMANTAI HILL-FORT IN WESTERN LITHUANIA: A CASE STUDY ON HABITATION SITE AND ENVIRONMENT

Hill-forts are visually distinct archaeological monuments of the Lithuanian landscape; despite excavations that have recently become more intensive, more often than not we still make judgments of hill-forts on the basis of their surviving image, which is assumed to reflect the final stage of their existence. Usually our knowledge about the size of the settlement at its foot, its planigraphy, and of course chronology, is too slender to make any conclusions. By employing complex non-destructive research methods (palynological, geochemical, lithological and geomagnetic analysis, as well as 14C and thermoluminescence dating), the article discusses the time of the rise and the abandonment of Skomantai hill-fort and settlements, the hierarchical relations with the hill-fort as an object forming the settlement structure of the neighbouring area, both settlements at the foot of the hill, and the surrounding burial grounds and monuments, all of which make up a micro-region. As the economic model of the community and the social structure of society changed, the relations between the hill-fort and the settlements changed, as did the purpose of the hill-fort.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/ab.v17i0.55 Key words: western Lithuania, Skomantai, hill-fort, settlements, micro-region, human activity, non-destructive research methods, 14C dating, thermoluminescence dating

The Formation of Deluvial and Alluvial Cones as a Consequence of Human Settlement on a Loess Plateau: An Example from the Chroberz Area (Poland)

The area of Chroberz (southern Poland) poses questions of an interdisciplinary character comprising geomorphologic, sedimentation, and archaeological-historical problems. The main aim of this study was to identify the geomorphologic response to changes in the natural environment that took place in the area of the loess plateau (and its close vicinity) as a result of its settlement by man and of climate change. Periods of particularly intense human activity (land-use changes, deforestation, and agriculture) were recorded as changes in the type of sedimentation, i.e. organic sedimentation substituted for mineral one; it was extremely intensive during the Neolithic Age, Iron Age, and Early Middle Ages. The conducted fieldwork research, analysis of available archaeological materials, and radiocarbon dating results show that there is a direct connection between human economic activity in primeval and historic times and between soil erosion and accumulation of colluvial/alluvial fans in the surroundings of the locality of Chroberz. 14C dates documenting the age of colluvial sediment formation show that individual areas of the upland were settled by humans asynchronously. On the basis of a low facial variability, or, occasionally, even homogeneity, of individual colluvia (from soil erosion) and their considerable thickness, it can be concluded that the land was in constant use or that the intervals with no human activity were relatively short. The progressing human impact process is visible both in the form progradation recorded as the changes in 14C ages (e.g. from 1440 +/- 100 to 780 +/- 80 BP) and in textural (e.g. chemical) features of sediments of which the examined fans are composed.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202

Landscape changes based on sedimentological and geochemical studies in the region of Brudzeń Duży

Sedimentological and geochemical research carried out in North- West Mazovia, central Poland, allowed the determination of landscape transformation in relation to the history of human settlement. The types of sediments subject to analysis included palaeochannel filling, accumulation on the river floodplain and colluvial deposits. The absolute ages of sediments and their sedimentological features allow the conclusion that the first response to human activity in the area is recorded in the overbank deposits in the Skrwa River valley as a result of the Wielbarska Culture in 200-300 AD. Subsequently, fan accumulation at the mouths of gullies started around the 12th-13th centuries AD. Frequent changes of sediment properties have been observed since the early Middle Ages. The subsequent anthropogenic impact on homogenous deposits is recorded in increased heavy metal concentration in vertical geological profiles

Comparison of beta (LSC) and gamma (HPGe) spectrometric methods for lead-210 in chronological study

The sediments of two lakes located in the Baltic Uplands, the western part of the East European Plain (East Lithuania and North East Poland), were studied. Activity concentration of 210Pb was determined using two nuclear analytical techniques: determination of 210Pb in equilibrium with its beta emitting daughter 210Bi using liquid scintillation counter (LSC), and direct determination of 210Pb (and other radionuclides) by low-background gamma-ray spectrometer with a well type HPGe detector. For the 210Pb determination by LSC the methodology of lead separation based on the anion exchange resin in Cl- form (Eichrom) was used. Several steps of radiochemical procedures and respective parameters were investigated additionally. The optimized procedures for LSC method were used for case study with two lake cores. The activity concentration of 210Pb in lake sediment samples based on both nuclear analytical techniques (LSC and HPGe) were compared. 210Pb dating of cores was performed according to Constant Rate of 210Pb Supply (CRS) model with some modifications. Both techniques in the range of uncertainties gave similar results. From two considered lakes, the more eutrophic one exhibited higher sediment mass accumulation rate (MAR) values