Influence of soil characteristics and evaporation processes on the raising up of salt and pollutants in Mediterranean mining areas

Resumen

Some mining areas are plenty of pollutants, such as heavy metals, but also havea lot of salts that can rise up by capillarity processes, dragging with them highamounts of metals. This fact can be of big importance regarding the health ofthe ecosystems and populations placed around these mining areas. Depending onseveral soil characteristics such us porosity, medium pore size, water content,pH, soil salinity and thermodynamic surface properties, but also by the effect ofevaporation processes influenced by average air temperature and air saturationstatus, there are important raising up processes of salt and associated pollutantsunder Mediterranean climate mining areas. This study has been focused, mainly,on the study of the rising up phenomenon of the salts and dragged heavymetals, depending on soils characteristics and weather conditions. In this sense,higher amounts of salts rise up in salty soils, with a medium-small porous sizeand under dry weather conditions. Otherwise, soil pH seems to have a greatinfluence on metal enrichment of these salts that can appear on soils surface.