Normalized Rare Earth Elements in Water, Sediments, and Wine: Identifying Sources and Environmental Redox Conditions

Abstract

The concentrations of the rare earth elements (REE) in surface waters and sediments, when normalized on an elementby-element basis to one of several rock standards and plotted versus atomic number, yield curves that reveal their partitioning between different sediment fractions and the sources of those fractions, for example, between terrestrial-derived lithogenous debris and seawater-derived biogenous detritus and hydrogenous metal oxides. The REE of ancient sediments support their partitioning into these same fractions and further contribute to the identification of the redox geochemistry of the sea water in which the sediments accumulated. The normalized curves of the REE that have been examined in several South American wine varietals can be interpreted to reflect the lithology of the bedrock on which the vines may have been grown, suggesting limited fractionation during soil development.

The chert from the Castelltallat Formation (south-central Pyrenees): archaeometric characterisation and archaeological implications

“…8). This is similar to that of the reference pattern and also the one that corresponds to the sediment load in suspension in rivers (Piper and Bau 2013). The graph does not show any apparent anomalies in Ce and Eu (the latter was only measured for two samples).…”

87Sr/86Sr and trace element mapping of geosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere interactions: A case study in Ireland

“…The REE+Y patterns of many large rivers are relatively flat when normalised to shale (Elderfield et al, 1990), demonstrating their similar pattern with the average upper continental crust (often approximated with shale composites) and assumed to be a broad representation of the original REE+Y source (Piper and Bau, 2013). In such cases, this similarity indicates that the relative abundances of the REE+Y are not markedly fractionated during weathering and aqueous transport.…”

Zirconium–hafnium and rare earth element signatures discriminating the effect of atmospheric fallout from hydrothermal input in volcanic lake water

“…The REE are used as tracers for various geochemical processes occurring in natural water systems (Wood, 2003;Piper et al, 2013;Varekamp, 2015 and references therein).…”