arsenic in groundwater from mineralised proterozoic basement rocks of burkina faso this study describes the hydrogeochemistry and distributions of as in groundwater from a newly investigated area of burkina faso groundwaters have been sampled from hand pumped boreholes and dug wells close to the town of ouahigouya in northern burkina faso although most analysed groundwaters have as concentrations of less than 10 g l 1 they have a large range from 0 5 to 1630 g l 1 the highest concentrations are found in borehole waters all dug wells analysed in this study have as concentrations of 10 g l 1 skin disorders melanosis keratosis and more rare skin tumour have been identified among the populations in three villages in northern burkina faso two within the study area although detailed epidemiological studies have not been carried out similarities with documented symptoms in other parts of the world suggest that these are likely to be linked to high concentrations of as in drinking water the high as groundwaters observed derive from zones of au mineralisation in birimian lower proterozoic volcano sedimentary rocks the au occurring in vein structures along with quartz and altered sulphide minerals pyrite chalcopyrite arsenopyrite however the spatial variability in as concentrations in the mineralised zones is large and the degree of testing both laterally and with depth so far is limited hence concentrations are difficult to predict on a local scale from available data the groundwater appears to be mainly oxic and the dissolved as occurs almost entirely as as v although concentrations are highest in groundwaters with dissolved o2 concentrations 2 mg l 1 the source is likely to be the oxidised sulphide minerals and secondary fe oxides in the mineralised zones positive correlations are observed between dissolved as and both mo and w which are also believed to be derived from ore minerals and oxides in the mineralised zones the discovery of high as concentrations in some groundwaters from the birimian rocks of northern burkina faso reiterates the need for reconnaissance surveys in mineralised areas of crystalline basement

particle sizes effect of the elements in the south china sea sediment off pahang coastal during the northeast monsoon pre and the southwest monsoon post periods the pahang water determined an effect of the sizes of sediment particles on 11 elements distribution during the monsoon season the elements were of very high concentration in a sediment particle size of 40 63 and 90 m the lower concentration of the elements was associated with a sediment size of 125 250 and 500 m it has been observed in this research study that a concentration of elements increases with a decrease in a size of the sediment particles the sediment from the northeast pre monsoon consisted of a finer particle size than the southwest post monsoon sediments overall the concentration of the elements in the northeast pre monsoon sediment was higher than the southwest post monsoon sediment the northeast monsoon is highly influenced due to an input of fresh sediment from the rivers into the south china sea as well as due to a redistribution in the surface sediment there were many differences in sediment element content between the two monsoon seasons but an anthropogenic impact was only found in lead pb

structural evolution of the northern los angeles basin california based on growth strata subsurface structure contour maps and cross sections show that the northern los angeles basin is underlain by a south facing monocline complicated by secondary faults and folds the monocline and associated structures form a structural high the northern los angeles shelf which marks the northern margin of the los angeles central trough analysis of growth strata sediments deposited during structural growth shows that during the miocene the predominant structural style was extension growth strata show that at approximately the beginning of the pliocene 5 ma contraction reactivated the miocene normal faults as reverse faults and formed the monocline its secondary structures and the los angeles central trough lensing out of earliest pliocene delmontian stage growth sandstones onto the flanks of the monocline and secondary structures the south salt lake the east beverly hills and the las cienegas anticlines indicates that these contractional structures all began to form at this time all of the secondary structures became largely inactive prior to the deposition of upper pico member of early pleistocene age 1 2 ma however thick accumulations of growth strata of the upper pico member of the fernando formation within the los angeles central trough attest to continued monoclinal folding after the secondary structures became largely inactive the growth strata record both vertical and horizontal components of structural growth of the monocline so that the dip of the blind fault zone causing the monocline the los angeles fault can be calculated in the east beverly hills area the dip of the los angeles fault is 61 and at las cienegas the dip is 62 these are maximum values based on the assumption that the growth strata bed lengths record all shortening the pliocene pleistocene average fault slip rates for the los angeles fault are 1 1 1 3 mm yr in the east beverly hills and 1 3 1 5 mm yr at las cienegas the resulting pliocene pleistocene horizontal convergence rates are 0 5 0 6 mm yr and 0 6 0 7 mm yr respectively the pliocene pleistocene growth strata show increased dip with age indicating that the monocline grew by progressive limb rotation rather than by kink band migration therefore fault bend and fault propagation fold models based on kink band migration are inadmissible solutions to explain the growth of the monocline we suggest a basement involved shear zone to explain the geometry of the northern los angeles shelf

relationships between particle size distribution and vnir reflectance spectra are weaker for soils formed from bedrock compared to transported parent materials the cost of determining particle size distribution psd of the soil can be significantly reduced by using statistical relationships between visible and near infra red diffuse reflectance spectra vnir drs and the proportions of the three size fractions sand silt and clay the spectra contain information on the quantities of soil minerals which occur in these fractions statistical models for estimating psd based on a set of soil samples from common parent materials pm with similar mineralogy may provide more accurate predictions than more comprehensive global models the aim of this paper is to compare the performance of statistical models for the prediction of psd from vnir drs for soils with differing types of parent material specifically soils derived directly from bedrock coal bearing and mudstone bearing strata or from transported parent materials glacial till glacio lacustrine deposits and alluvium across eastern england we assessed the accuracy of psd predictions using partial least squares regression plsr models between two additive log ratios of the three size fractions and vnir drs we also formed a global plsr model from all five soil groups we used mean residual prediction deviation rpd from repeated n 100 cross validation to compare the performance of the models because it accounts for the magnitude of variation in the sample data the most accurate models for the clay rpd range 1 82 2 33 and sand fractions rpd range 1 71 1 94 were for soils developed over the transported pm the models for soils developed over bedrock were substantially poorer clay rpd range 1 33 1 68 sand rpd range 1 34 1 39 the rpd values for the silt fraction models were smaller but the same distinction between transported better rpd range 1 4 1 88 and bedrock derived soils poorer rpd range 1 15 1 25 was observed the global model had intermediate rpd values for the three size fractions clay 1 75 silt 1 76 and sand 1 74 of the five groups the soils developed from glacio lacustrine deposits had the largest mean sand size fraction 58 but also the most accurate models for estimation of clay and sand size fractions due to sedimentary transport and deposition the mineralogy of the soils developed from quaternary substrates may be more homogeneous than the bedrock derived soils which may in part account for the more accurate models developed for the former to date we do not have sufficient evidence to demonstrate this unequivocally

trace metal pollution of soils in northern england data from a regional geochemical survey of topsoils n 818 in rural and peri urban areas over a single parent material coal measures are used to identify two types of trace metal pollution severe local contamination at 20 sites and widespread diffuse pollution in more densely populated areas median concentrations of several trace metals in topsoils were significantly higher in areas of high compared to low population density percentage increases in parenthesis as 31 cu 39 fe 7 mo 26 36 ni 29 pb 20 sn 40 and zn 11 four potential pathways of diffuse trace metal pollution are postulated coal ash dispersal atmospheric aerosols derived from coal combustion the historical spreading of sewage waste and those related to road vehicles the statistical analysis of geochemical data classified by local human population density can be an effective means of identifying the magnitude and extent of diffuse pollution and could help to establish natural background levels

national scale estimation of potentially harmful element ambient background concentrations in topsoil using parent material classified soil stream sediment relationships regulatory authorities require estimates of ambient background concentrations abcs of potentially harmful elements phes in topsoil such data are currently not available in many countries high resolution soil geochemical data exist for only part of england and wales whilst stream sediment data cover the entire landscape a novel methodology is presented for estimating soil equivalent abcs for phes from high resolution hr stream sediment geochemical data grouped by common parent materials pm using arsenic as as an example geometric mean gm values for local pm groups are used to investigate different approaches for transforming sediment to soil equivalent concentrations holdout validation is used to assess i the optimum number of samples for calculating local gm values and ii the optimum scale at which to group data when using linear regression analysis to estimate gm soil abcs from local sediment geochemical values holdout validation showed that the smallest differences were generally observed when five observations were used to calculate the gm and that these should be grouped over the smallest possible area in order to encompass soils over pms with elevated gm as concentrations geometric mean abcs are estimated and mapped for as in mineral soil across all of england and wales within delineations of pm polygons errors for the estimation of soil equivalent gm as abcs based on sediment data for an independent validation set were of a similar magnitude to those from holdout validation applied to the original data suggesting the approach is robust the estimates of soil equivalent abcs suggest that as exceeds the regulatory threshold used in risk assessments for residential land use 20 mg kg1 across 16 of the landscape of england and wales the applicability of the method for cognate landscapes and potential refinements is discussed

geostatistical analysis in weathering studies case study for stanton moor building sandstone geostatistical techniques for spatial prediction and spatial simulation have been used in an innovative application to the study of weathering of natural building stone the study investigates the differences in the spatial variation of permeability characteristics between fine and coarse grained stanton moor building sandstone non destructive permeability measurements using an unsteady state portable probe permeameter were made on three adjacent faces of two cubic blocks representative of fine to medium grained and medium to coarse grained stanton moor sandstone the findings provide greater understanding in the investigation of the durability characteristics of the stanton moor sandstone and show that the spatial distribution and variability of permeability is more important in predicting the overall strength and weathering properties than mean permeability and absolute minimum and maximum values the results suggest that both primary textural characteristics such as grain size and extent of cementation appear to be important factors in determining the overall durability properties of stanton moor sandstone as a building stone geostatistical analysis has been shown to be an important tool in the characterization of spatial variation for the investigation of weathering of building stones copyright 2006 john wiley sons ltd

distribution of radon sources and effects on radon emanation in granitic soil at ben lomond california the abundance and distribution of radioelements on bulk and microscopic scales were investigated in residual granitic derived soil at a facility for investigating the movement of radon into structures in bulk soil samples ra concentrations range from 0 6 to 1 3 pci g and variations in ra th and k appear to be controlled mainly by heterogeneities inherited from the parent granitic rock which contains abundant dikes and inclusions u in soil and parent rock is concentrated in primary minerals mainly zircon and sphene and in secondary sites that are of greater importance for rn emanation the main u bearing secondary sites are weathered sphene grain boundary coatings weathered biotite and plagioclase as well as dense fe rich coatings and a ree phosphate mineral present in near vertical fracture zones in saprolite underlying shallow loam elevated u in these sites generally correlates with high ti al fe and or p preferential distribution of u and ra on grain boundaries and porous weathered minerals is reflected in relatively high rn emanation rates in the soil highest emanation occurs between 1 3 and 2 3 m depth where fine pedogenic phasesgibbsite and amorphous silica and fe ooh are most abundant it is related to fixation of ra by these phases which precipitate close to the surface and accumulate at these depths by illuviation separation of ra from u may occur locally given remobilization of u series elements from secondary sites and large differences between ra and u sorption capabilities of several phases present in the soil concentration of u along permeable fracture zones in saprolite suggests that contribution of soil gas rn from depth 2 m could be significant to rn availability near the surface

the influence of parent material on topsoil geochemistry in eastern england the topsoil of around 10 000 km2 in eastern england has recently been sampled intensely at 4609 sites to characterize its geochemistry the parent materials which include both solid geology and quaternary sediments range in age from permian to holocene the distributions of the concentrations of major and trace elements have been characterized geostatistically and the role of parent material on their spatial structure anisotropy and their spatial relationships coregionalization have been investigated analysis of variance with the sites grouped by major parent material type showed that this classi cation accounted for 14 to 48 per cent of the variance for the various elements global variograms of 13 elements al as ca cr cu fe mg mo ni p pb ti and u have been computed and modelled eleven of the variograms seem to comprise two structures both of which we modelled with spherical functions one of short range 3 5 to 9 km and the other with a range of 15 to 23 km the models included a nugget variance which varied from 27 per cent for as fe and mg to 63 per cent for p of the total the long range structures are related to the separations of the major parent materials the variograms of several elements showed appreciable anisotropy most notably that of mg anisotropy is evident at short ranges of less than 5 km this accords with the geological structure of the beds which dip from west to east so that their outcrops are elongated from north to south a linear model of coregionalization tted to the data emphasized several important geochemical associations which we interpret elements commonly associated with clay minerals mg al and the clay size fraction ti are dominated by the long range structure of the coregionalization whilst several trace elements as cr ni and u are spatially correlated with fe over short distances through adsorption of the former on the surfaces of fe oxyhydroxides the topsoil around large urban areas is enriched in lead but it is not clear whether anthropogenic sources are responsible for this metal s anomalous spatial relationships with other elements crown copyright 2003 reproduced with the permission of her majesty s stationery of ce published by john wiley sons ltd

high resolution seismic reflection profiling of the santa monica fault zone west los angeles california high resolution seismic reflection data obtained across the santa monica fault in west los angeles reveal the near surface geometry of this active oblique reverse left lateral fault although near surface fault dips as great as 55 cannot be ruled out we interpret the fault to dip northward at 30 to 35 in the upper few hundred meters steepening to 65 at 1 to 2 km depth a total of 180 m of near field thrust separation fault slip plus drag folding has occurred on the fault since the development of a prominent erosional surface atop 1 2 ma strata in the upper 20 to 40 m strain is partitioned between the north dipping main thrust strand and several closely spaced near vertical strike slip faults observed in paleoseismologic trenches the main thrust strand can be traced to within 20 m of the ground surface suggesting that it breaks through to the surface in large earthquakes uplift of a 50 000 year old alluvial fan surface indicates a short term dip slip rate of 0 5 mm yr similar to the 0 6 mm yr dip slip rate derived from vertical separation of the oxygen isotope stage 5e marine terrace 3 km west of the study site if the 0 6 mm yr minimum dip slip only rate characterizes the entire history of the fault then the currently active strand of the santa monica fault probably began moving within the past 300 000 years

stability and facies association of early diagenetic mineral assemblages an example from a jurassic ironstone mudstone succession u k abstract sedimentological and petrographic data from two lower liassic ooidal ironstones the frodingham and pecten ironstones and associated mudstones from eastern england have been collected within these ironstones early diagenetic berthierine siderite and minor glauconite have a limited lateral extent associated with an intrabasinal high the market weighton swell this mineral assemblage passes laterally and vertically into mudstones and silty mudstones within which pyrite is the dominant early diagenetic iron mineral the ironstones are stratigraphically condensed having experienced low net sediment accumulation rates and shallow high energy conditions thermodynamic considerations indicate that berthierine and siderite should be stable in anoxic environments where sulfide activity is negligible pyrite is rare within the ironstones suggesting that sulfate reduction was a negligible process during ironstone formation where pyrite is present it postdates berthierine and siderite indicating that sulfate reduction may have been a later process in some beds we propose that berthierine and siderite were precipitated during suboxic diagenesis where sulfate reduction was inhibited and iron reduction was the dominant process of organic matter oxidation suboxic diagenesis resulted from the extended periods of physical and biological sediment reworking during ironstone deposition which favored the oxidation of iron minerals and aerobic egradation and loss of organic matter berthierine formed during early suboxic diagenesis at the expense of detrital clays and iron oxides during later suboxic diagenesis pore water bicarbonate activities increased leading to siderite precipitation early glauconite also formed in places and it seems likely that it formed close to the oxic suboxic interface the predominance of pyrite in the mudstones indicates that sulfate reduction was the major process of organic matter oxidation during early diagenesis

arsenic and presumed resistate trace element geochemistry of the lincolnshire uk sedimentary ironstones as revealed by a regional geochemical survey using soil water and stream sediment sampling a regional geochemical survey using soils stream sediment and stream water sampling revealed multi element geochemical anomalies though of low environmental mobility associated with mesozoic sedimentary ironstones in lincolnshire uk the most prominent of these anomalies were of as and v in soils and sediments but elevated levels of elements such as cr la ce and th were also observed these were initially thought to be part of a residual resistate element or heavy mineral suite but careful examination suggests that these too may be primarily associated with the process of fe oxide precipitation during the initial formation of the ironstones

spatial characterization of salt accumulation in early stage limestone weathering using probe permeametry this research characterizes the weathering of natural building stone using an unsteady state portable probe permeameter variations between the permeability properties of fresh rock and the same rocks after the early stages of a salt weathering simulation are used to examine the effects of salt accumulation on spatial variations in surface rock permeability properties in two limestones from spain the fraga and tudela limestones are from the ebro basin and are of miocene age both stone types figure largely in the architectural heritage of spain and in common with many other building limestones they are prone to physical damage from salt crystallization in pore spaces to examine feedbacks associated with salt accumulation during the early stages of this weathering process samples of the two stone types were subjected to simulated salt weathering under laboratory conditions using magnesium sulphate and sodium chloride at concentrations of 5 and 15 permeability mapping and statistical analysis aspatial statistics and spatial prediction before and after salt accumulation are used to assess changes in the spatial variability of permeability and to correlate these changes with salt movement porosity change potential rock deterioration and textural characteristics statistical analyses of small scale permeability measurements are used to evaluate the drivers for decay and hence aid the prediction of the weathering behaviour of the two limestones copyright 2010 john wiley sons ltd

geogenic signatures detectable in topsoils of urban and rural domains in the london region uk using parent material classified data systematic mapping of the chemical environment of urban areas from around the world have shown varying degrees of control of element distributions by the underlying parent material pm the purpose of the study reported here is to assess whether geogenic signatures that dominate soil chemistry in rural domains of eastern england and which are not strongly impacted by human activities can also be detected in the london urban region a pm soil chemistry mapping method is used to determine the spatial variation of topsoil chemistry data in london and the surrounding rural areas analysis of variance anova of the soil data for the london region indicates that 26 33 of the variance of al ce cs ga k la mg mn nb nd rb ti v and y is explained by soil pm surface geology and a slightly lesser proportion 19 25 of the variance for ca co fe i ni sc sr and th in comparison soil pm explains only 5 of the variance of cd the variance of some other elements appears to be influenced by a mixture of geogenic and anthropogenic controls including as ba cr cu mo p pb sb se sn and zn for which pm controls 12 16 of the variance geogenic soil chemistry patterns observed for the elements strongly influenced by pm in the rural areas surrounding london can be quite clearly followed into and through the london urban area spatial patterns of a range of elements primarily controlled by pm have not been destroyed even in a major urban centre with a recorded history dating back over 2000 years and which has been subjected to extensive urban development destruction and redevelopment especially during the last 200 300 years

spatial prediction of seabed sediment texture classes by cokriging from a legacy database of point observations this paper illustrates the potential for statistical mapping of seabed sediment texture classes it reports the analysis of legacy data on the composition of seabed sediment samples from the uk continental shelf with respect to three particle size classes sand mud gravel after appropriate transformation for compositional variables the spatial variation of the sediment particle size classes was modelled geostatistically using robust variogram estimators to produce a validated linear model of coregionalization this was then used to predict the composition of seabed sediments at the nodes of a fine grid the predictions were back transformed to the original scales of measurement by a monte carlo integration over the prediction distribution on the transformed scale this approach allowed the probability to be computed for each class in a classification of seabed sediment texture at each node on the grid the probability of each class and derived information such as the class of maximum probability could therefore be mapped predictions were validated at a set of 2000 randomly sampled locations the class of maximum probability corresponded to the observed class with a frequency of 0 7 and the uncertainty of this prediction was shown to depend on the absolute probability of the class of maximum probability other tests showed that this geostatistical approach gives reliable predictions with meaningful uncertainty measures this provides a basis for rapid mapping of seabed sediment texture to classes with sound quantification of the uncertainty remapping to revised class definitions can also be done rapidly which will be of particular value in habitat mapping where the seabed geology is an important factor in biotope modelling

understanding airborne radiometric survey signals across part of eastern england a low level airborne radiometric survey provides data on the concentrations of gammaemitting elements including potassium k thorium th and uranium u in the upper half metre of the soil where weathering has not penetrated much beyond this depth as in the young soils that cover much of england and wales the signal is likely to be related to the soil s clay content and its parent material in these situations radiometric survey could be valuable for mapping soil digitally we wished to understand how the radiometric signal relates to parent material and soil geochemistry and to identify the spatial structure if not the sources of any unexplained variation we analysed the joint spatial variation of the airborne gamma signal and high resolution soil geochemical survey data across part of eastern england by modelling their coregionalization we also used reml to assess the joint effects of soil geochemistry and parent material on the radiometric signals of k and th the overall correlations of radiometric estimates with soil survey data for k and th were large as were the structural correlations for components of variation spatially dependent up to 49 and 16 km for k and th respectively this suggests that the radiometric signals for these two elements provide effective estimates of the amounts in the soil and their patterns of distribution although class of parent material accounted for a third of of the variance in the radiometric k signal much of the variation within the classes is explained by geochemistry suggesting that subtler changes can be detected a larger proportion of the th signal was accounted for by parent material this supports our expectation that radiometric signals for k and th provide information on parent material in the young landscapes of england and wales we are therefore confident that airborne radiometric surveys would be useful for making thematic maps of soil particularly the soil s texture and closely related properties across england and wales copyright 2007 natural environment research council published in 2007 by john wiley sons ltd

process recognition in multi element soil and stream sediment geochemical data abstract stream sediment and soil geochemical data from the upper and lower coastal plains of south carolina usa were studied to determine relationships between soils and stream sediments from multi element associations characteristic compositions were determined for both media primary associations of elements reflect mineralogy including heavy minerals carbonates and clays and the effects of groundwater the effects of groundwater on element concentrations are more evident in soils than stream sediments a winnowing index was created using ratios of th to al that revealed differing erosional and depositional environments both soils and stream sediments from the upper and lower coastal plains show derivation from similar materials and subsequent similar multi element relationships but have some distinct differences in the lower coastal plain soils have high values of elements concentrated in heavy minerals ce y th that grade into high values of elements concentrated into finer grain size lower density materials primarily comprised of carbonates and feldspar minerals mg ca na k al these gradational trends in mineralogy and geochemistry are inferred to reflect reworking of materials during marine transgressions and regressions upper coastal plain stream sediment geochemistry shows a higher winnowing index relative to soil geochemistry a comparison of the 4 media upper coastal plain soils and stream sediments and lower coastal plain soils and stream sediments shows that upper coastal plain stream sediments have a higher winnowing index and a higher concentration of elements contained within heavy minerals whereas lower coastal plain stream sediments show a strong correlation between elements typically contained within clays it is not possible to calculate a functional relationship between stream sediment soil compositions for all elements due to the complex history of weathering deposition reworking and re deposition however depending on the spatial separation of the stream sediment and soil samples some elements are more highly correlated than others

reply to comment on precise k ar 40ar 39ar rb sr and u pb mineral ages from the 27 5 ma fish canyon tuff reference standard by m a lanphere and h baadsgaard

texture contrast profile with stonelayer in the cape peninsula south africa autochthony and polygenesis article i nfo article history received 21 october 2013 accepted 26 january 2014 available online xxxx

geochemical fingerprinting and source discrimination of agricultural soils at continental scale 2108 agricultural soil samples ap horizon 0 20 cm were collected in europe 33 countries area 5 6 million km2 as part of the recently completed gemas geochemical mapping of agricultural and grazing land soil soil mapping project gemas soil data have been used to provide a general view of element origin and mobility with a main focus on source parent material and source rocks at the continental scale either by reference to average crustal abundances or to normalized patterns of element mobility during weathering processes the survey area covers a large territory with diverse types of soil parent materials with distinct geological history and a wide range of climate zones and landscapes to normalize the chemical composition of european agricultural soil mean values and standard deviation of the selected elements have been compared to model compositions of the upper continental crust ucc and mean european river suspended sediment some elements are enriched relative to the ucc al p pb zr whereas others such as mg na and sr are depleted the concept of the ucc extended normalization pattern has been applied to selected elements the mean values of rb k y ti al si zr ce and fe are very similar to the values from the ucc model even when standard deviations indicate slight enrichment or depletion zirconium has the best fit to the ucc model using both mean value and standard deviation lead and cr are enriched in european soil when compared to the ucc model but their standard deviation values span a large particularly towards very low values which can be interpreted as a lithological effect gemas soil data have been normalized to al and na taking into account the main lithologies of the ucc in order to discriminate provenance sources additionally sodium normalization highlights variations related to the soluble and insoluble behavior of some elements e g k rb versus ti al si v y zr ba and la respectively their reactivity e g fe mn zn and association with carbonates e g ca and sr maps of europe showing the spatial distribution of normalized compositions and element ratios reveal difficulties with the use of classical element ratios because of the large lithological differences in compositions of soil parent material the ratio maps and color composite images extracted from the gemas data can help to discriminate the main lithologies in europe at the regional scale but need to be used with caution due to the complexity of superimposed processes responsible for the soil chemical composition

the significance of morphogenetic analysis in the assessment of soil water conditions in quaternary sediments abstract the landform pattern of the polish lowlands which originated during and after the warta glaciation is closely connected with areal deglaciation and directions of geomorphological landform evolution landscape shaping processes were significant for the creation of sediment configuration and sediment characteristics of particular landforms and thus for properties of sediments determination of the relationships between the origin of a landform and its physical geochemical properties can facilitate the evaluation of geological conditions carried out for land use planning that should take into account the sensitivity of the geological environment soil groundwater to the migration of contaminants the aim of this research was to find geomorphological means of identifying physicochemical and hydrogeological properties of quaternary sediments that enable fast and precise assessment of long term and recent soil water conditions the investigations were conducted in two areas of the polish lowlands that were formed during the warta glaciation during geological mapping of distinguished landforms 169 samples of sediments were collected for laboratory testing the samples were analyzed for particle size calcium carbonate organic matter content ph permeability coefficient cec and adsorption of cd and pb the results show that these distinguished glacial landforms are characterized by the recurrence of superficial lithological profiles with typical physicochemical parameters thus the morphogenesis of postglacial areas of central poland formed during the warta glaciation has influenced the ability of surface deposits to retain contamination a total of seven insulation classes of landforms in terms of differentiated insulating abilities of deposits as well as the ranges of values for each insulating parameter have been identified