Isotopic, Geophysical, and Hydrogeochemical Investigations of Groundwater in West Middle Upper Egypt.

The groundwater of the west Assiut and El-Minia districts was evaluated in this paper using geoelectrical, hydrogeochemical, and stable isotope (oxygen-18 and deuterium) studies. In the studied localities, 42 vertical electrical soundings (VES) were taken to evaluate groundwater potential, and the analysis, as well as collection, of 74 samples of Eocene groundwater was carried out. In accordance with the vertical electrical soundings' interpretation, there are four geoelectrical formations and two major water-bearing units that act as aquifers (Pleistocene and Eocene). To determine irrigation suitability, the sodium absorption ratio (SAR), electrical conductivity (EC), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), sodium percentage (Na %), magnesium hazard (MH), Kelley's ratio (KR), and permeability index (PI) were evaluated as irrigation quality parameters. The EC, Na %, and the diagram of the US salinity laboratory indicated that most of the collected samples of groundwater were suitable for irrigation, whereas the RSC and PI pointed out that all of the collected water samples were safe for irrigation. The oxygen and hydrogen isotope values in groundwater samples showed that the Eocene aquifer was recharged by both surface water and the Nubian aquifer.

Intermediate field directions recorded in Pliocene basalts in Styria (Austria): evidence for cryptochron C2r.2r-1.

Pliocene volcanic rocks from south-east Austria were paleomagnetically investigated. Samples were taken from 28 sites located on eight different volcanoes. Rock magnetic investigations revealed that magnetic carriers are Ti-rich or Ti-poor titanomagnetites with mainly pseudo-single-domain characteristics. Characteristic remanent magnetization directions were obtained from alternating field as well as from thermal demagnetization. Four localities give reversed directions agreeing with the expected direction from secular variation. Another four localities of the Klöch-Königsberg volcanic complex (3) and the Neuhaus volcano (1) have reversed directions with shallow inclinations and declinations of about 240° while the locality Steinberg yields a positive inclination of about 30° and 200° declination. These aberrant directions cannot be explained by local or regional tectonic movements. All virtual geomagnetic pole positions are located on the southern hemisphere. Four virtual geomagnetic poles lie close to the geographic pole, while all others are concentrated in a narrow longitude sector offshore South America (310°-355°) with low virtual geomagnetic pole latitudes ranging from - 15° to - 70°. The hypothesis that a transitional geomagnetic field configuration was recorded during the short volcanic activity of these five localities is supported by 9 paleointensity results and 39Ar/40Ar dating. Virtual geomagnetic dipole moments range from 1.1 to 2.9·1022 Am2 for sites with low VGP latitudes below about 60° and from 3.0 to 9.3·1022 Am2 for sites with higher virtual geomagnetic pole latitudes. The new 39Ar/40Ar ages of 2.51 ± 0.27 Ma for Klöch and 2.39 ± 0.03 Ma for Steinberg allow for the correlation of the Styrian transitional directions with cryptochron C2r.2r-1 of the geomagnetic polarity time scale. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40623-021-01518-w.

Geomagnetic and Geoelectric Prospection on a Roman Iron Production Facility in Hüttenberg, Austria (Ferrum Noricum).

Geophysical prospection has been applied in the Hüttenberg area (Carinthia, Austria), where important parts of the Roman iron production in the province of Noricum between the first century bc and the fourth century ad are located. A combination of geomagnetic, geoelectric and electromagnetic measurements at different scales yielded information about the extent of the industrial complex and the location of yet undiscovered subsurface monuments in the surrounding area of the Semlach-Eisner archaeological site. The vertical and lateral extension of a slag deposit from the smelting activities could be determined by means of geomagnetic mapping and multi-electrode geoelectric profiles. For the prediction of the continuation of walls in the subsurface outside the excavated area, the total horizontal derivative of the magnetic anomaly as well as geoelectric measurements were most suitable, whereas electromagnetic measurements were not successful owing to the high conductivity of widely spread pieces of slag. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lithological and pedological influences on the magnetic susceptibility of soil: their consideration in magnetic pollution mapping.

Magnetic susceptibility measurements are widely used to map and monitor the heavy metal pollution of soils. However, the magnetic properties of soils are influenced significantly by the bedrock lithology and soil-forming processes. Therefore, a main challenge in the data interpretation is to filter out the anthropogenic pollution signal. In this study we address this problem by analysing susceptibility values, heavy metal concentrations, as well as pedological parameters in a large soil data set from the eastern segment of Austria, covering a wide range of different lithologies and soil types. The statistic assessment demonstrates an influence of lithology and soil type on the magnetic susceptibility signal. Therefore anomalies are defined in sub sets of different soil types separately. Three different methods were applied to detect susceptibility anomalies: the median absolute deviation method, the boxplot method, and the population modelling method. These methods evaluate topsoil data only and can therefore also be applied to field measurements of magnetic susceptibility. The results were compared to the conventional method of calculating the difference of topsoil and subsoil susceptibility. All three approaches identify the main anomalies in the study area and are successful in circumventing the problem of erroneous anomaly definition due to pedological processes. However, knowledge of the lithological background is still necessary for a meaningful interpretation and can only be substituted by a large amount of data. The tested methods lead to thresholds of different height and therefore act as filters of different strength for the definition of anomalies.

Antimony speciation in soil samples along two Austrian motorways by HPLC-ID-ICP-MS.

Distribution of antimony and its inorganic species in soil samples along two traffic routes (A14, Rankweil and S36, Knittelfeld) in Austria was determined, since vehicle emissions are an important anthropogenic source of Sb in soil. The samples were taken along three parallel lines at about 0.2, 2 and 10 m distances from the edge of the road and in two depths range (0-5 and 5-10 cm from the soil surface). The optimized extraction was carried out using 100 mmol L(-1) citric acid at pH 2.08 applying an ultrasonic bath for 45 min at room temperature. Speciation analyses were done using on-line isotope dilution after a chromatographic separation of Sb species. Results of the two traffic routes confirmed significant accumulations of Sb at surface (0-5 cm depth) exceeding the natural background values by more than ten times at the S36 or four times at the A14. Concentrations of the extractable inorganic species decreased to natural background levels within a few meters from the edge of the traffic lane. The predominant Sb species was Sb(V). The Sb(III) concentrations at 5-10 cm depths range are nearly constant with distance from the edges of the two roads. Magnetic susceptibility data of all soil samples show the same distribution pattern as Sb and Sb(V) concentrations along the two traffic roads with an excellent correlation. This is an evidence for an anthropogenic source of Sb such as abrasions of motor vehicles surfaces or braking linings. The input of Sb and its inorganic species at one of the sampling sites (Knittelfeld) in samples taken in 2002 and in those taken recently (2005) was monitored. An increase in Sb (>or=30%), Sb(v)(>or=51%) and Sb(iii)(>or=10%) concentrations was only observed near the edge (