Authors / CoAuthors
de Caritat, P. | Reimann, C.
Abstract
Recently, continental-scale geochemical surveys of Europe and Australia were completed. Thanks to having exchanged internal project standards prior to analysing the samples, we can demonstrate direct comparability between these datasets for 10 major oxides (Al2O3, CaO, Fe2O3, K2O, MgO, MnO, Na2O, P2O5, SiO2 and TiO2), 16 total trace elements (As, Ba, Ce, Co, Cr, Ga, Nb, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sr, Th, V, Y, Zn and Zr), 14 aqua regia extracted elements (Ag, As, Bi, Cd, Ce, Co, Cs, Cu, Fe, La, Li, Mn, Mo and Pb), Loss On Ignition (LOI) and pH. It is useful to compare these new datasets, covering 12 million km2, with compositional estimates from other continents, the upper continental crust and, indeed, published average world soil values. Comparison with other continental datasets is hampered by differences in sampling strategies (media, depth, etc.), sample preparation (esp. sieving), sample analysis (total vs partial analysis), and data reporting (means vs medians). Overall, it appears that different continents have distinct geochemical characteristics. Using upper continental crust concentrations to estimate 'average' global soil compositions is over-simplistic and unwarranted. We propose a set of Preliminary Empirical Global Soil reference values from 2 continental-scale geochemical surveys (PEGS2) based on the median values measured for Europe and Australia, for the elements listed above. These empirical values can be significantly different to previous (theoretical) world soil values. For instance PEGS2 values are systematically lower in Al2O3, CaO, Fe2O3, P2O5, Ba and Sr than previous estimates.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
73408
Contact for the resource
Custodian
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
-
- External PublicationAbstract
- ( Theme )
-
- regolith
- ( Theme )
-
- geochemistry
- ( Theme )
-
- soils
- ( Theme )
-
- environmental
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
-
- Earth Sciences
-
- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2012-02-08T00:00:00
Creation Date
Security Constraints
Legal Constraints
Status
Purpose
Maintenance Information
unknown
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Lineage
Unknown
Parent Information
Extents
[-44.0, -10.0, 112.0, 154.0]
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
Associations
Downloads and Links
Source Information
Source data not available.