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Lake Sediments Help Scientists Trace 7,000 Years Of Mining, Metal Use In China

Date:
June 20, 2008
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
A new geochemical study illuminates 7,000 years of mining and metal use in central China and links these trends to fluctuations in airborne pollution during the Bronze Age and other military and industrial periods in Chinese history. The study could help scientists better assess the accumulative environmental effects of human activity in the region since prehistory times.
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A new geochemical study illuminates 7,000 years of mining and metal use in central China and links these trends to fluctuations in airborne pollution during the Bronze Age and other military and industrial periods in Chinese history. The study could help scientists better assess the accumulative environmental effects of human activity in the region since prehistory times.

Using carbon-dated core sediments taken from Liangzhi Lake in Hubei province, Xiang-Dong Li and colleagues were able to track metal deposit trends at the lake dating back to 5,000 B. C. Liangzhi Lake, located in an important region in the development of Chinese civilization, is relatively undistributed by local wastewater discharges and is therefore an ideal site to study ecological changes and the effects of past human activity, the scientists say.

Beginning in about 3,000 B.C. concentrations of copper, nickel, lead and zinc in the sediments began to rise, indicating the onset of Bronze Age in ancient China, the researchers found. In the late Bronze Age (475 B.C. to 220 A.D.), an era corresponding with numerous wars, sediment concentrations of copper increased 36 percent and lead by 82 percent.

Copper and lead were used extensively to make bronze tools and weapons. The sediments suggest mining and metal usage in the region continued to wax and wane into the modern era, reflecting the environmental changes influenced by past human activity.


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Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Seven Thousand Years of Records on the Mining and Utilization of Metals From Lake Sediments in Central China. Environmental Science & Technology, July 1, 2008 DOI: 10.1021/es702990n

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "Lake Sediments Help Scientists Trace 7,000 Years Of Mining, Metal Use In China." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 June 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080616092214.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2008, June 20). Lake Sediments Help Scientists Trace 7,000 Years Of Mining, Metal Use In China. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 5, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080616092214.htm
American Chemical Society. "Lake Sediments Help Scientists Trace 7,000 Years Of Mining, Metal Use In China." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080616092214.htm (accessed October 5, 2024).

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