Metal Pollutions Have Stayed for Thousands of Years in Arctic Lake

Inorganic and organic compounds have stayed for thousands of years in Arctic lake. Experiments have showed that these compounds were staying for so long which do not make the presence of them in Arctic lake. The pollution in Arctic was not merely caused by the human activities.

During the Holocene epoch, the Earth alternated into several form including the changing of rocks’ sedimentation. The research conducted by geologists P. M. Outridge et al., has shown that carbonates rocks and carbonaceous mud rocks had given contribution for the existence of inorganic and organic compounds. Respectively, they affected the production of dolomites; limestone and minor elements in different formations. This study revealed that during the Holocene era, the earth had created sediment kerogen and algal state which implied the creation of metal and organic compounds.

Based on geological knowledge, Holocene was an era happened around twelve thousands years ago and it has been investigated as one of the ear which the temperature was in warm condition. This era is considered for the major causing for the development of living things in the Earth including human’s civilizations. The impact to our civilizations can be seen on the presence of ancient urban living, ecosystems and agricultural.

Arctic is a controlling area which has been considered as the place for monitoring the metal pollution occurred airborne or inside the water. This region is like the end of the water flows because of many sophisticated industrials which has been operating in Europe and American use water. Consequently, the contaminated ecosystems are not only occurred for the underground water but also in large area of atmospheric. Some studies suggested that the metal pollutant could be arriving in Arctic’s atmosphere.

However, today’s industrials are not the only suspects for causing metal pollution in the Arctic. Mining activities which were happened for long time ago are reported to cause the sedimentations of pollutant for certain concentrations. These sedimentations are influenced based on geological aspects including the weather conditions, water flows, wind and dust deposition and biogeochemical recycling. However, in importance of our environmental impact today since we already have the climatic changing, we considered two factors which are based on atmospherically situations and aquatic contamination.

The study was set up in the lake DV09 located in the northern part of Devon Island with depth is 16 meters. This lake is chosen by the researchers because they did not find any perennial and ephemeral flows into the lake which can disturb the concentrations of the water. On the other hand, this lake is suitable because its surrounding, and it has group of limestone and dolomite.

By analyzing the sedimentation through calculating the organic matters including oxygen index, organic petrology, and type of organic matter in bulk sedimentation, they found climatic change during Holocene period had responsible for the alternating of sedimentation and it influences the composition of the sedimentations. After tracing the path of contamination, they suggested the minor and bulk element concentrations were respectively formed from erosion and dissolution. Overall, the climate also affected some areas for the alternating of geochemistry in sedimentation process.