FluviMag

Locations of samples of recent fluvial and litoral sediments in blue and of source rocks in red that where analysed for mass-specific magnetic susceptibility, for the area of Germany and adjacent regions, with additional samples taken in France beyond the frame of this figure. © digital elevation model: "EU-DEM v1", European Commission – DG ENTR, 2012, EU-DEM Version 1, http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/eu-dem
Locations of samples of recent fluvial and litoral sediments in blue and of source rocks in red that where analysed for mass-specific magnetic susceptibility, for the area of Germany and adjacent regions, with additional samples taken in France beyond the frame of this figure. © digital elevation model: "EU-DEM v1", European Commission – DG ENTR, 2012, EU-DEM Version 1, http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/eu-dem
Image: Engelhardt

Fluvial Transport of Magnetominerals

Duration: since 2003, first results published in 2011

Project leader: Michael Pirrung

Person in charge:  Michael Pirrung, in case by case cooperation with Dirk Merten, Neele van Laaten and graduate students

Cooperationpartner: Jörn Engelhardt, Geoplan Ingenieure Dr. Köhler GmbH, Kantstr. 2, 04275 Leipzig

Beschreibung: Magnetic susceptibility is a widely used petrophysical parameter in geosciences. Here it is applied to detect ferrimagnetic components in creek and river sediments that reflect actual aspects of weathering, soil formation, erosion, transport and deposition. As in many environmental considerations the amount of natural versus anthropogenic components has to be estimated to appreciate human impact on the drainage system. Therefore a lot of samples of source rocks is collected in Central Europe and magnetic susceptibility is determined on these samples in order to establish typical geogenic background values. Additional samples of artificial rocks, spider webs and dust collectors help to estimate the influence of anthropogenic material on fluvial sediments. For the latter, the fine and coarse fractions show different transport dynamics and have to be regarded individually. Identification of magnetominerals is achieved by microscopy of extracted material and by thermomagnetic measurements.

Preliminary results: Results and summaries are available online in several articles on the project website.