Sedimentation fingerprinting

Small, I. F., Rowan, J. S., Franks, S. W Wyatt, A., and Duck, R. W. (2004). Bayesian sediment fingerprinting provides a robust tool for environmental forensic geoscience applications, in Forensic Geoscience Principles, Techniques and Applications (K. Pye and D. J. Croft, Eds.). London Geological Society Special Publication 232, 207-213. 

In a climax to his sediment studies, Patterson reported tersely that we have found the composition of lead in snow to be very different from the composition of lead which has been deposited on the ocean floors during the past 100,000 years. The lead in Lassen Volcanic National Park had a signature mix of lead isotopes, a characteristic fingerprint identifying it as a... 

Broman et al. [15] have discussed methods of fingerprinting petroleum hydrocarbons in bottom sediments. 

Bone and enamel, archaeological, strontium isotope analysis, 102-104 Bone chemistry, principles, 116-117 Bone materials in archaeological soils and sediments, 198, 200-204 Botswana prehistoric mines, specular hermatite source fingerprinting, 460-479... 

Konig, I. and Hollatz, R. (1990) A fingerprint technique using Mossbauer spectroscopy for the determination of individual chemical iron species in young sediments. Hypeifine Interact., 57, 2245. 

Jeltes and Van Tonkelaar [20] investigated problems of oil pollution, the nature of the contaminants and the chemical methods used for their detection. In particular, the use of gas chromatography to obtain fingerprint chromatograms of oil pollutants in water, and of infrared spectrophotometry to determine the oil contents of soils and sediments, is discussed. 

The identification of C-depleted (fi C values as low as -58 per mil) archeal cyclic biphytanes in particulate matter from the Black Sea, where more than 98% of the methane released from sediments is apparently oxidized anaerobically (Reeburgh et al., 1991), provides evidence for AMO in euxinic waters (Schouten et al., 2001). However, the same isotopically depleted compounds were not detected in the underlying sediments, suggesting that the responsible organisms are in low abundance and/or leave no characteristic molecular fingerprint in the sedimentary record. 

A number of studies have investigated whether genetic and/or physiological differences create fingerprints in other aspects of alkenone/ alkenoate systematics that might allow investigators to distinguish past variations in species/ strain production in sediments. Volkman et al. 

Petroleum hydrocarbon sources to North American and worldwide waters were summarized in a report by NRC (2002). In many cases of large petroleum spills, the specihc source of petroleum spill is evident, and no geochemical fingerprinting is required to establish the source. Nevertheless, the inventory of petroleum compounds and biomarkers that are eventually sequestered in bottom sediments need not reflect sole derivation from a single source, even in cases of massive oil spills in the area (e.g., Kvenvolden et al., 1995 Wang et al., 1999). Where a mass balance of petroleum sources is required to properly design remediation or identify a point source, molecular methods for distinguishing sources of hydrocarbons have come to the fore. 

Abdul-KassimT. A. T. and Simoneit B. R. T. (1995) Petroleum hydrocarbon fingerprinting and sediment transport assessed by molecular biomarker and multivariate statistical analysis in the eastern harbour of Alexandria, Egypt. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 30, 63-73. 

Figure 13. Normalized, As-K edge XANES spectra of (a) As(]]l) and (b) As(V) in different model coordination environments, illustrating the power of XANES spectroscopy for chemical fingerprinting. Often the low bulk concentrations of As in aquifer sediments preclude a quantitative EXAFS analysis fortunately, quantitative oxidation state and semi-quantitative speciation information can be obtained from high-quality XANES spectra.

Pyrolysis-GC is being used increasingly in the field of petroleum geochemistry for rapid comparison of samples by fingerprinting. The method used by the Institut Francais du Petrole (Saint-Paul et al., 1980 Durand and Paratte, 1983) has been applied to humic substances in sediments. It is a low-temperature (475°C) pyrolysis with intermediate trapping of the effluent with liquid nitrogen (with the exception of CH4) followed by GC analysis (Dexsil 300 packed column). 

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