HR: 1340h
AN: B33C-1427    [Abstracts]
TI: Crater-lake Santa Maria del Oro as a Pristine Reference for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP' s) and Heavy Metals Content in Environmental Investigations in Western Mexico (Project Conacyt-Semarnat 2002-C01-0463, in Progress).
AU: * Zarate-del Valle, P F
EM: zavp.pvaz@gmail.com
AF: Chemistry Department Guadalajara University, P. O. BOX 4-021, Guadalajara, JAL 44950, Mexico
AU: Gomez-Hermosillo, C M
EM: cgomez@lsu.edu
AF: Chemistry Department Guadalajara University, P. O. BOX 4-021, Guadalajara, JAL 44950, Mexico
AU: Venegas-Garcia, D J
EM: deysijv@gmail.com
AF: Chemistry Department Guadalajara University, P. O. BOX 4-021, Guadalajara, JAL 44950, Mexico
AB: Santa Maria del Oro Lake ( SMO) (21.37° N, 104.57° W; 750 m a.s.l.) is a quaternary crater-lake located at western Mexico in the natural border between two geological provinces: the plio-quaternary Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and the oligo-miocenic silicic volcanic province Sierra Madre Occidental. SMO, a tropical freshwater lake, is a warm-monomictic lake having a diameter of ca. 2 km and a mean depth at the depocenter of ca. 60 m, where three benthos cores were recovered. Contents of POP' s, total inorganic carbon (TIC), total organic carbon (TOC) and heavy metals were analyzed. Geochemistry and mineralogy also were studied in shallow sediments which corresponded to the decade of 50-60's, otherwise the beginning of industrial development of central Mexico; which is considered the possible source of emission of POP' s and heavy metals. Dioxin, furan, plaguicides and PCB' s contents were analyzed by a GC-MS applying USEPA methods. In the first 40 cm (n= 20) of the sedimentary column ( SC) the absence of POP' s was evidenced, applying a method detection limit ( MDL) of 5 μ g/ml for dioxin, furan and PCB' s. For plaguicides like chlordane and toxaphene the MDL was 0.5 μ g/ml and for plaguicides like DDT, aldrin, endrin, dieldrin, heptachlore and mirex the MDL was 5 μ g/ml. The MDL for HCB was 1 μ g/ml. The average (n= 30) for TIC, TOC and total carbon (TC) for the first 40 cm of the SC is as follows: TIC 2.4 %, TOC 3.7 % and TC 6.12 %. The average (n= 20) content (in ppm) of heavy metals for the first 20 cm of the SC is as follows: As 5.97, Cr 27.54, Cu 16.31, Ni 12.29, Pb 21.35 and Zn 82.46. These contents are roughly similar to the clarke of these metals in volcanic rocks. After the criteria of severe effect level ( SEL) of heavy metal in sediments, the content of these metals is below SEL levels. These results permit us to conclude that the sediments of SMO can be considered in unaffected state with respect to antropogenic contamination like POP' s and heavy metals. Consequently, Santa Maria del Oro Lake can be considered as a pristine reference in paleo-ecological and environmental investigations in western Mexico.
DE: 0432 Contaminant and organic biogeochemistry (0792)
DE: 0458 Limnology (1845, 4239, 4942)
DE: 0478 Pollution: urban, regional and global (0345, 4251)
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects (4802, 4902)
DE: 1845 Limnology (0458, 4239, 4942)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting