Late Quaternary tectonic uplift and Yellow River evolution create high arsenic aquifers in the Hetao Basin, China

Abstract

High arsenic (As) groundwater is a global problem primarily originating from As-enriched sediments. The provenance (source) and release mechanisms (sinks) of high As sediment have been identified, but the source-sink transfer is poorly understood, especially the influence of geological and surface processes. In this study, we explore the roles of tectonic movement and Yellow River evolution in provenance formation processes and evaluate the combined effects of provenance and sediment age on the As content of aquifer sediments in the northern Hetao Basin of Inner Mongolia. Based on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and ¹⁴C dating and detrital zircon U-Pb, As content, and lithological analyses of a 400 m core, we reconstructed As changes over the last 160 ka. Our results show clay deposited in a paleo-lake during the Gonghe movement period in the late Pleistocene (∼100 ka B.P.) is enriched in As (31.8 μg/g) due to significant provenance contributions of the As-bearing Langshan Group under tectonic uplift and mountain erosion. In contrast, clay deposited in the middle Pleistocene (∼160 ka B.P.) has lower As content (7.3 μg/g) due to the Yellow River as the primary provenance. Accordingly, the provenance of basin As forced by tectonic uplift and Yellow River evolution determines the background As of aquifer sediments. After deposition, sediment As content decays over time, with higher decay rates in coarse-grained sands than fine-grained. Overall, both provenance formation and sediment age, representing initial and dynamic states of solid phase As, jointly determine the As content of aquifer sediments. More solid phase As provided by younger sediments from the proximal orogenic provenance and reducing conditions due to frequent river–lake transitions, jointly lead to higher As concentrations in shallow groundwater. The study highlights the potential for using a combined analysis of the tectonic movement-surface processes-environment system to improve understanding of geogenic high As groundwater over global large sedimentary basins in the proximity of young orogenic belts.

Keywords

High arsenic groundwater / Provenance / Tectonic uplift / Yellow River evolution / Surface processes / Hetao Basin

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Haoyue Zhang: Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft. Xujiao Zhang: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Peisheng Ye: Investigation, Resources. Chenglu Li: Data curation, Investigation. Junlei Li: Data curation, Investigation. Xiaoning Yuan: Data curation, Investigation. Xiangge Zhang: . Huaming Guo: Validation, Funding acquisition. Pat J.-F. Yeh: Writing – review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42301094, 41972192, and 41825017). Prof. Dicheng Zhu gave considerable assistance with the zircon U-Pb dating work. Dr. Barbara Rumsby and Prof. Paul A Carling were involved in the professional polishing work. Dr. Di Zhang gave help with arsenic analysis. The editor and anonymous reviewers are also thanked for their careful reviews.

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