Multi-elemental contamination and historic record in sediments from the Santos-Cubat？o Estuarine System, Brazil

this paper records for the first time the contamination history and identifies the sources of 38 elements in sediments from the santos-cubat？o estuarine system (se brazil), at one of the most industrialized areas in latin america. the compositions of samples from a 260 cm long sediment core collected in the morr？o river estuary were determined by icp-ms. enrichment factors, principal component analysis, correlation matrixes, and the characterization of geochemical signatures permitted a consistent data evaluation. contaminant elements such as cr, mn, ni, zn, ga, ag, cd, sn, sb, pb, and bi were associated with steel plant-derived fe concentrations, while be, ca, sc, co, cu, sr, y, zr, nb, hf, ta, th, and u were associated with fertilizer industry-derived p concentrations. an overlap of sedimentary fe distribution and local steel plant production indicated that fe is a reliable marker of the contamination history, allowing the estimation of sedimentation rates over a period of 45 years of industrial activities.