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Geochemical normalization of magnetic susceptibility for investigation of floodplain sediments

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Abstract

Magnetic susceptibility (MS) is commonly used as a proxy for industrial pollution in natural sediments or as a proxy for the percentage of detrital components in peat or carbonates. The MS may also reflect the geology of the sediment source and post-depositional processes in sediments, such as soil development. The aim of our research was to test the usefulness of Fe-normalized mass-specific MS (χ) and Ti-normalized Fe in a study of floodplain sediments. We sampled 27 floodplain sediment cores from several geologically different catchments throughout the Czech Republic, analysed their Fe and Ti concentrations using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and determined their χ. To decipher sediment grain-size dependence and possible magnetic enrichment, background functions for χ were constructed using similar approach as that used for geochemical background functions of the risk element concentrations with Fe concentrations as an independent variable. It provides a mechanism to calculate χ of sediments as it would be “pristine”, i.e. without post-depositional changes and pollution. Sediments derived from “mafic” source rocks had χ/Fe larger by two orders of magnitude than sediments derived from “felsic” rocks. Sediments derived from “mafic” source rocks also exhibit lower mean Fe/Ti ratio in pristine sediment strata than the average upper continental crust. The magnetic carriers inherited from mafic rocks are stepwise destroyed by pedogenesis in the floodplains and thus slowly approach χ of sediments derived from felsic rocks. Gleying processes may change χ/Fe, Fe/Ti ratio allows identifying a past action of those post-depositional processes.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Project No. 15-00340S (Grant Agency of the Czech Republic). XRF analyses were performed in the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry ASCR in Řež; here we thank Petr Vorm for sample handling and analyses. Magnetic susceptibility data were obtained in the Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Palacký University in Olomouc. Special thanks to Ondřej Bábek from the Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Palacký University in Olomouc for reading the manuscript and providing inspiring comments. We also wish to thank Edward A. Nater, Christoph E. Geiss and Eduard Petrovský for critical comment of earlier version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    M. Faměra

  2. Institute of Inorganic Chemistry CAS, v.v.i, Řež, Czech Republic

    M. Faměra & T. Matys Grygar

  3. UJEP, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic

    T. Matys Grygar & J. Elznicová

  4. Institute of Geophysics CAS, Bocni II/1401, 14131, Prague, Czech Republic

    H. Grison

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  1. M. Faměra
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Faměra, M., Matys Grygar, T., Elznicová, J. et al. Geochemical normalization of magnetic susceptibility for investigation of floodplain sediments. Environ Earth Sci 77, 189 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7371-0

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