Rare Earth Element and Yttrium Variability in South East Queensland Waterways

• DOI: 10.1007/s10498-005-4471-8
• Publication Date: 2006-05-08T05:41:08Z
• Authors: Michael G. Lawrence; Alan Greig; Kenneth D. Collerson; Balz S. Kamber
• Keywords: Rare-earth element

We present data for the rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) in the National Research Council of Canada natural river water reference material SLRS-4 and 19 natural river waters from small catchments in South-East Queensland, Australia, by a direct ICP-MS method. The 0.22 μm filtered river water samples show a large degree of variability in both the REY concentration, e.g., La varies from 13 to 1157 ppt, and shape of the alluvial-sediment-normalised REY patterns with different samples displaying light, middle or heavy rare earth enrichment. In addition, a spatial study was undertaken along the freshwater section of Beerburrum Creek, which demonstrates that ~75% of the total REYs in this waterway are removed prior to estuarine mixing without evidence of fractionation.