Purpose This study established reliable natural geochemical backgrounds for Amazonian upland lakes and evaluated how lateritic catchment materials are transferred and transformed in lake sediments across Carajás, Araguaia, and Xingu. Methods Ferruginous duricrusts and lake sediments were analyzed using a robust median + 2×median absolute deviation (mMAD) approach to define regional inorganic and organic backgrounds. Source-to-...

Surface water quality in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, a mining province in southeastern Brazil, was evaluated by combining water quality indices (WQI), land use and land cover (LULC), and population data to identify spatial and seasonal influences on river chemistry. We analyzed 835 (rainy) and 845 (dry) samples and calculated WQI scores using established methods from the literature. The methods for calculating the WQI detected...

This study investigated the hydrogeochemical characteristics of surface waters in the Congonhas Mineral District (CMD), located in the southern portion of Quadrilátero Ferrífero, Brazil. A total of 38 sites were monitored between 2021 and 2024 to understand seasonal and spatial variability across distinct lithologies and land uses. Hydrogeochemical patterns revealed dominant mixed bicarbonate facies associated with metavolcano...

Watershed monitoring is vital for ecosystem sustainability and contamination source identification. Such studies are scarce in the Amazon region. To address this, an integrated study was conducted to assess variations in baseline concentrations of Fe and potentially toxic elements in the Gelado Creek Watershed (GCW), eastern Amazon. This watershed, situated in the Carajás Mineral Province, hosts two world-class Fe mines with t...