Nasser M. Mansoor1, Lee Slater1
1Rutgers University, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 101 Warren Street, Room 137, Newark, New Jersey 07102.
Tóm tắt
Induced polarization (IP) measurements [Formula: see text] were conducted on seventeen clay and peat marsh soils that were subsequently analyzed for heavy metal concentrations, moisture content, organic matter, porosity, specific surface area, and pore fluid conductivity. A Cole-Cole model was fit to each sample and model parameters analyzed in terms of physicochemical properties. We found a linear relation between the normalized chargeability [Formula: see text] and estimated surface area to pore volume [Formula: see text] when iron content (ranging from 0.25% to 1.63% by volume) is accounted for as a polarizable element of the soil. In fact, the dependence of [Formula: see text] on volumetric Fe concentration per unit volume of the bulk soil is described by a linear relationship with a correlation coefficient [Formula: see text] of 0.94. As Fe concentration is a critical biogeochemical parameter, our findings suggest that IP measurements may provide a hitherto unrecognized approach to probing soil geochemistry, iron cycling and anaerobic microbial activity. Furthermore, our results yield insights into physicochemical controls on IP in natural soils.
