Lmst

#GlobalTailingsManagementStandard

Coastal Environments - LiDAR Mapping of Copper Tailings Impacts, Particle Retention of Copper, Leaching, and Toxicity
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https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17050922 <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #remotesensing #earthobservation #coastalenvironment #coast #coastal #mine #tailings #minetailings #GlobalTailingsManagementStandard #Keweenaw #LiDAR #bathymetry #topobathy #UAS #drone #particledispersal #copper #retention #leaching #BuffaloReef #toxicity #Daphnia #benthic #organisms #risk #hazard #contamination #impacts #sediment #water #hydrology #Michigan #USA #LakeSuperior #PortageLakeVolcanic #geology #spatialanalysis #biology #ecosystems #fisheries #trout #enviornmentalimpacts #leaching #riparian #systems

maps - Geographic location of Grand (Big) Traverse Bay (red to green contours) along the eastern shoreline of the Keweenaw Peninsula. On the Peninsula, early copper mines are indicated by black dots within the Portage Lake Volcanic Series (dashed lines) and large stamp mills by stars. Two mills (Wolverine and Mohawk) are located near Gay. Insert shows anthropogenic copper inventory “halo” around the Peninsula, in µg/cm² copper

maps - Grand (Big) Traverse Bay: 2010 LiDAR DEM (digital elevation model) colour-coded by elevation and water depth (depth scale to right). Red horizontal contour lines are at 5 m depth intervals. Gay tailings pile (“original pile”) is indicated, as well as migrating underwater stamp sand bars dropping into an ancient river channel (the Trough; at locations #1, and #5). On the eastern flanks of Buffalo Reef, stamp sands are moving out of the Trough into cobble/boulder fields (#3, #4). Along the western edges, stamp sands have migrated as a beach deposit to the Traverse River Seawall (#8) and are slipping down into an underwater depression (#7) next to cobble/boulder fields. Stamp sands are also moving around the harbour outlet (#8). Hence, both the eastern and western sides of Buffalo Reef are experiencing tailings encroachment. Lower on the reef (#2, #6), there is little contamination. Past the Traverse River, the sands in the southern bay are almost exclusively natural quartz grains (#9), forming a white beach with shoreline cusp-like features and bar, plus ridges (#10) of natural sand moving from the shelf into deeper waters off the bay and into Lake Superior

aerial images - UAS high-resolution drone elevation and bathymetry surveys (base map 9 August 2022) of shoreline retreat at the original Gay pile location after bluff removal. Overlays along the beach edge trace shorelines in 2009, 2016, and 2022. The 78 m retreat over 6 years (2016–2022); equates to a 13 m/yr rate. The previous, nearly constant, long-term retreat rate prior to 2009 averaged 7.9 m/yr (ca. 26′) [7,57]. The original Jacobsville Sandstone shoreline, before stamp sands were discharged, is marked by the red border in the far-left upper region. Note white concrete basements of the two mills and remnants of both wooden and broken concrete launders in the northern region. Environmental recovery is beginning, as benthic organisms and fish are returning to clear underwater stretches of the bedrock shelf, where waves have removed stamp sands. Scattered trees (many birch) are beginning to colonise what is left of the original Gay Pile surface.

photos - Gay Stamp Sand Pile. (a) Wooden discharge launder distributing tailings onto the Gay Pile, around 1922, with smaller sluices conveying stamp sand and slime clays laterally (courtesy MTU Archives). (b) Photo of 6–8 m high stamp sand bluffs in July 2008 off Gay, showing a buried small lateral sluiceway protruding out of the pile along the shoreline. Lake Superior waters are to the right; the dark beach sands are stamp sands with intermixed slime clay layers. (c) Bluff photo from about the same location in 2019, when shoreline erosion (ca. 7–8 m/year) reached the buried launder support beams, just before bluff removal.

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