Hydrogeochemical Zoning of the River Network of Kamchatka

Abstract

The hydrogeochemical features of river water in different parts of Kamchatka Peninsula have been identified in terms of a wide (57) range of macro- and microelements by quantitative analysis methods—mass-spectrometry and atomic-emission analysis with inductively coupled plasma. Relatively high concentrations of chemical elements are typical of water that forms near active volcanoes of the Northern group in the peninsula and on Kamchatka Western coast in the territory with the least thickness of the soil-pyroclastic mantle. River water hydrochemistry is poorest in regions of the southeastern coast of the peninsula, where soil surface horizons overlay young, poorly transformed volcanic ash and, as an exception for Kamchatka as a whole, a positive geochemical correlation was found to exist between water and the total soil chemistry. General features of water hydrochemistry in Kamchatka include generally low concentrations of chemical elements compared with river water Clarkes; a high iron content of waters in all parts of the peninsula; a general absence of a correlation between the qualitative elemental composition of waters with the composition of the upper part of the soil-pyroclastic mantle.