HEAVY-METALS IN BOTTOM SEDIMENTS OF GREAT SLAVE LAKE (CANADA) - RECONNAISSANCE

Near the shores of Great Slave Lake, natural sources of heavy metals include gold and base metal deposits, mineralized greenstone belts and sedimentary bedrock, and uraniferous granites. Potential anthropogenic sources of heavy metals (As, Zn, Pb) include large gold and base metal extraction -processing facilities on the shores of the lake. Six sediment cores were collected on a traverse of the lake. Heavy metal concentrations and distributions are related to the regional bedrock geochemistry in the drainage basin. Higher uranium concentrations in the northernmost core are attributed to extensive uraniferous areas north of the lake. More subtle variations of concentration are related to sedimentologic characteristics and processes in the lake. The west basin is a natural sink for most of the heavy metals determined. Two centrally located west basin cores had mean zinc concentrations of 145 ppm, whereas cores closer to the north and south shores had mean concentrations of 80-110 ppm. Mn, Ni, and Pb were enriched in some of the cores from the area of shallower water near the MacKenzie River outlet, rather than in the central west basin. The enrichment is related to Mn-, Ni-, and Pb-rich amorphous coatings on quartz grains. Elevated zinc or lead levels from anthropogenic activities were not detected but elevated levels are suspected for arsenic. In the two cores from the center of the west basin, surface sediment contains up to 12 ppm arsenic, not high in comparison with noncontaminated freshwater lakes elsewhere in Canada but considerably elevated relative to concentrations of 1 ppm found deeper in the same cores. © 1979 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.