Rock-magnetic properties of topsoils and urban dust from Morelia (>800,000 inhabitants), Mexico: Implications for anthropogenic pollution monitoring in Mexico's medium size cities

In this work, we investigate the correlation between some magnetic parameters and the level of contamination by heavy metals in urban soils from Morelia city, western Mexico. The magnetic study was carried out on 98 urban soils samples belonging to distinct land uses. Most of analyzed samples contai...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Aguilar Reyes, Bertha, Bautista, Francisco, Goguitchaichvili, Avto, Morales Contreras, Juan Julio, Quintana Owen, Patricia, Carvallo, Claire, Battu, Julie
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:México
Institución:UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO
Repositorio:Geofísica Internacional
Idioma:español
inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:revistagi.geofisica.unam.mx:article/406
Acceso en línea:http://revistagi.geofisica.unam.mx/index.php/RGI/article/view/406
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:ambientemetría
magnetismo de rocas
metales pesados
contaminación urbana
agregados magnéticos
environmetrics
rock-magnetism
heavy metals
urban pollution
magnetite aggregate
Descripción
Sumario:In this work, we investigate the correlation between some magnetic parameters and the level of contamination by heavy metals in urban soils from Morelia city, western Mexico. The magnetic study was carried out on 98 urban soils samples belonging to distinct land uses. Most of analyzed samples contain ferrimagnetic minerals as the responsible for magnetization, most probably corresponding to the titanomagnetites/ titanomaghemites solid solutions. This is inferred from the susceptibility vs. temperature measurements and the isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) experiments. These measurements also indicate that most of samples are almost completely saturated before 300 mT. Additionally, the S-200 values (S-200 = IRM-200/ SIRM, where IRM-200= Back-field of 200 mT after magnetic saturation) are between 0.7 and 1.0, characteristic of low coercivity magnetic minerals. The averaged saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) curves can be used as an indicator of pollution level, as these curves show different saturation values according to the level of contamination by heavy metals: Cu, Ni, Cr and Sr. These associations of (titano)magnetite with heavymetals wereobserved byScanning Electron Microscope revealing some complex aggregates rather than commonly detected spherules.