The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 15 No 2 (2011): 150 – 158

 

 

 

SEDIMENTATION RATE AND CHRONOLOGY OF As AND Zn IN SEDIMENT OF A RECENT FORMER TIN MINING LAKE ESTIMATED USING Pb-210 DATING TECHNIQUE

 

Zaharidah Abu Bakar¹, Ahmad Saat^2*, Zaini Hamzah¹, Abdul Khalik Wood³ and Zaharuddin Ahmad³

 

¹Faculty of Applied Sciences,

²Institute of Science,

Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia, 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia

³Malaysian Nuclear Agency,

43000 Bangi, Malaysia.

 

*Corresponding author: ahmad183@salam.uitm.edu.my

 

 

Abstract

Sedimentation in lake occurred through run-off from the land surface and settles on the bottom lake. Past mining activities might enhance sedimentation process in the former tin mining lakes either through natural or human activities. Former tin mining lakes were suspected to have high sedimentation rate due undisturbed environment for almost 50 years. To estimate sedimentation rate and metals contamination in this lake, Pb-210 dating technique was used. Two sediments cores were sampled using gravity corer from a former tin mining lake then analyzed using alpha-spectrometry and Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). From this study, the results showed the sedimentation rate for sediment cores S1 and S2 are 0.26 cm y^-1 and 0.23 cmy^-1 respectively. According to sediment chronological sequences, high concentrations of As and Zn in the upper layer indicated that human activities contributed to these metals contamination in the lake sediment. Sedimentation rate and metals contamination possibly due to recent anthropogenic activities around the lake such as human settlement, farming and agricultures activities since the ceased of mining activities a few decades ago.

 

Keywords: Sedimentation, Pb-210, Former tin mining lake, Metals element

 

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