Chemical and physical properties of marine sediments sampled during the Thala Valley Long Term Monitoring (TV-LTM) 2014-15 field season

Published: 2019-12-05

This data set contains chemical and physical parameters determined for marine sediment samples collected in the 2014-15 summer field season as part of the Thala Valley Long Term Monitoring (TV-LTM) project. The aim of this project was to examine changes in marine sediment chemistry in the vicinity of Casey station following the clean-up of the abandoned Thala Valley waste disposal ('tip') site in 2003-04. The chemical and physical parameters are: (1) 1 M hydrochloric acid-extractable metals by inductively coupled plasma - atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES); (2) water-extractable nutrients by flow injection analysis (FIA); (3) petroleum hydrocarbon fractions and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) – polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) – by gas chromatography - flame ionization detection / electron capture detection / mass spectrometry (GC-FID, GC-ECD, GC-MS), respectively; (4) loss on ignition at 550 degrees Celsius (LOI, a measure of total organic matter) and dry matter fraction (DMF) by gravimetric analysis; (5) grain size distribution: standard sieve data and laser diffraction particle size data. The laser particle size data are presented as % volume distribution within 100 size ‘bins’ over the range 0.02 µm to 2.00 mm diameter (histograms) and the % volume distribution below defined sizes (cumulative volume distribution). The former data are used to calculate % volume distribution in the 11 Wentworth (1922) size categories, from clay to very coarse sand. Additional geochemical parameters are also included in this data set: % carbonate, % biogenic silica and % aluminium; and sediment properties determined by pyrolysis using the ROCK-EVAL6 (RE6) analyser. The RE6 parameters are compared to the LOI and TPH data. Data sets 1, 3, 4 and 5 were obtained for composite samples prepared from the 0-5 cm section of 51 marine sediment cores collected by SCUBA divers from impacted (contaminated) and control (pristine) locations around Casey. Data set 2 was obtained for a subsample of the surface section (0-1 cm) of each of 74 marine sediment cores collected during the same sampling campaign. Sample locations: * Brown Bay (BB) - inner, mid and outer sites * Casey Wharf * McGrady Cove * O'Brien Bay (OB) - OB1, OB2, OB3 sites * Shannon Bay * Wilkes (adjacent to abandoned station) Analytical labs involved: * Wild Lab, AAD, Kingston, Tasmania (data sets 1 and 4; sample preparation for data set 2) * Analytical Services Tasmania (AST), New Town, Tasmania (data set 2) * Analytical Services Unit (ASU), Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada (data set 3) * Geoscience Australia, Canberra, ACT (data set 5) Information concerning analytical quality (method reporting limits, accuracy and precision of data) are included with each data set. Analytical method details are available in a separate summary document. Data sets (1) to (4) are grouped within the spreadsheet: 4180_TV-LTM_CHEM_metals-nutrs-tph_POPs-LOI_Metadata.xlsx Data set (5) is in a separate spreadsheet: 4180_TV-LTM_grain size and geochem_Metadata.xlsx