Concentrations of elements in the National Bureau of Standards' bituminous and subbituminous coal standard reference materials

Aerosols from the soufriere eruption plume of 17 april 1979

Aerosol samples collected from the 17 April 1979 eruption plume of Soufriere, St. Vincent, at altitudes between 1.8 and 5.5 kilometers were physically and chemically very similar to the ash that fell on the island. Higher altitude samples (7.3 and 9.5 kilometers) had a much lower ash content but comparable concentrations of sulfate, which were above the background concentration found at these altitudes.

Analytical applications of guided neutron beams

Guided beams of thermal and cold neutrons have become available to analysts at several reactors during the past decade. The very pure beams from these guides have led to lower backgrounds and higher sensitivities for prompt-gamma activation analysis (PGAA), and thus to new applications for this technique. For analytical accuracy, the details of neutron scattering within the sample need to be taken into account; this consideration is especially important for most materials of biological origin.

Identifying sources of groundwater pollution using trace element signatures

A simple receptor modeling approach has been applied to groundwater pollution studies and has shown that marker trace elements can be used effectively in source identification and apportionment. Groundwater and source materials from one coal-fired and five oil-fired power plants, and one coal-tar deposit site have been analyzed by instrumental neutron activation analysis for more than 20 minor and trace elements. In one of the oil-fired power plants, trace element patterns indicated a leak from the hazardous waste surface impoundments owing to the failure of a hypolon liner. Also, the extent and spatial distribution of groundwater contamination have been determined in a coal-tar deposit site.

Trace elements in human parotid saliva

Although various proteins and some electrolytes have been measured in human saliva, little systematic data about the major and minor elemental components of this body fluid have been obtained. In order to obtain such data, concentrations of C, Na, P, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Cr, Fe, Co, Zn, Se, Br, Rb, Sb, I, and Cs in human parotid saliva were measured by instrumental nuclear methods. The data obtained confirmed the relative lack of Zn in saliva of patients with hypogeusia (decreased taste acuity) and suggested that concentrations of Na, Cl, Br, and Ca followed the order: normals greater than hypogeusia greater than hyposmia (decreased smell acuity). To compare concentrations of elements in saliva with those in blood and urine, absolute concentrations were normalized to that of Na through the use of a concept called an enrichment factor. On this basis, parotid saliva is relatively depleted in Se, Zn, and Fe and enriched for most other elements relative to blood plasma indicating that the fluid is not simply a transudate of blood plasma. Using this same technique, saliva composition was found more similar to urine than blood plasma, being relatively depleted in Se, Cs, and Co, being enriched in I, Br, and Cr and having about the same relative concentrations of P, Cl, Zn, Fe, Ca, K, and Rb. As the total body concentrations of many of the enriched elements in saliva are extremely small, their enrichment in saliva suggests special roles for these elements in the oral cavity. Because of its accessibility, ease of collection, and interaction with some body constituents, saliva represents a useful, albeit neglected, tool in the diagnosis of some physiological and pathological changes in body function and in understanding important aspects of trace metal metabolism.

Rare Earths: Atmospheric Signatures for Oil-Fired Power Plants and Refineries

The concentration pattern of rare earth elements on fine airborne particles (less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter) is distorted from the crustal abundance pattern in areas influenced by emissions from oil-fired plants and refineries. For example, the ratio of lanthanum to samarium is often greater than 20 compared to a crustal ratio less than 6. The unusual pattern apparently results from the distribution of rare earths in zeolite catalysts used in refining oil. Oil industry emissions perturb the rare earth pattern even at remote locations such as the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Rare earth ratios are probably better for long-range tracing of oil emissions than vanadium and nickel concentrations because the ratios of rare earths on fine particles are probably not influenced by deposition and other fractionating processes. Emissions from oil-fired plants can be differentiated from those of refineries on an urban scale by the much smaller amounts of vanadium in the latter.

Iridium Enrichment in Airborne Particles from Kilauea Volcano: January 1983

Airborne particulate matter from the January 1983 eruption of Kilauea volcano was inadvertently collected on air filters at Mauna Loa Observatory at a sampling station used to observe particles in global circulation. Analyses of affected samples revealed unusually large concentrations of selenium, arsenic, indium, gold, and sulfur, as expected for volcanic emissions. Strikingly large concentrations of iridium were also observed, the ratio of iridium to aluminum being 17,000 times its value in Hawaiian basalt. Since iridium enrichments have not previously been observed in volcanic emissions, the results for Kilauea suggest that it is part of an unusual volcanic system which may be fed by magma from the mantle. The iridium enrichment appears to be linked with the high fluorine content of the volcanic gases, which suggests that the iridium is released as a volatile IrF(6).

El Chichon: Composition of Plume Gases and Particles

Aircraft measurements were made of trace gases, atmospheric particles, and condensed acid volatiles in the plume of El Chichón volcano, Chiapas, Mexico, in November 1982. Hydrogen sulfide was the primary gaseous sulfur species in the plume at the time of collection. Concentrations of 28 elements were determined by neutron activation analysis of particulate material from the plume. Rates of trace element emission to the atmosphere for each species were estimated by normlization to the simultaneously determined total sulfur emission rate. The volatile elements sulfur, chlorine, arsenic, selenium, bromine, antimony, iodine, tungsten, and mercury were enriched relative to bulk pyroclastic material by factors of 60 to 20,000. Arsenic, antimony, and selenium were associated predominantly with small (>/= 3 micrometer) particles. Calcium and sodium were present almost exclusively on larger particles and aluminum and manganese were bimodally distributed. Ashladen particulate material injected into the stratosphere during the early violent eruptions was enriched by factors of 10 to 30 relative to ash in some of the same elements observed in the quiescent plume.

Asian Dust: Seasonal Transport to the Hawaiian Islands

Analyses of atmospheric particles collected at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii from February 1979 through September 1982 reveal strong influxes of Asian dust in the spring of each year. Concentrations of a typical crustal element, aluminum, are more than an order of magnitude greater between February and June than during the remainder of the year (71 +/- 51 versus 6.7 +/- 2.3 nanograms per cubic meter). The mass of crustal material transported during the relatively short dust episodes accounts for an average of 80 percent of the total yearly mass of atmospheric particles at 3400 meters on Mauna Loa.

Trace Element Composition of the Mount St. Helens Plume: Stratospheric Samples from the 18 May Eruption

Atmospheric particulate material collected from the stratosphere in the plume of the 18 May 1980 eruption of the Mount St. Helens volcano was quite similar in composition to that of ash that fell to the ground in western Washington. However, there were small but significant differences in concentrations of some elements with altitude, indicating that the stratospheric material was primarily produced from fresh magma, not fragments of the mountain.