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Updated: May 19, 2026

Clean Sampling and Analysis of River and Estuarine Waters for Trace Metal Studies
Published on: July 1, 2016
Severe and contrasted polymetallic contamination patterns (1900-2009) in the Loire River sediments (France)
C Grosbois1, M Meybeck, L Lestel
1Université François Rabelais de Tours, EA 6293 GéHCO, Parc de Grandmont, 37200 Tours, France. cecile.grosbois@univ-tours.fr
Abstract:
The Loire River basin (117,800 km(2), France) has been exposed to multiple sources of metals during the last 150 years, originating from major mining districts (coal and non-ferrous metals) and their associated industrial activities. Geochemical archives are established here from the analysis of a 4m sediment core in the downstream floodplain and then compared to stream bed sediments from pristine monolithological sub-basins and from bed and bank sediments in impacted tributaries. The contamination is assessed for 55 major and trace elements through their enrichment factors to Al (EF), normalized to the pre-anthropogenic background. Archives from 1900 to 2009 show enrichment (EF<1.3) not only for Ba, Be, Cs, Ga, Rb, REE, Sr, V, and Zr but also for U and Th, despite U mining activities until the 1990s. From 1900 to 1950, the level of contamination is severe for Hg, Au, Ag (10
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