The release and dispersal of Pb and Zn contaminated sediments within an Arctic braided river system

This paper examines the release and dispersal of Pb and Zn contaminated mine tailings within the Tunnelelv river, NE Greenland. The Tunnelelv is an Arctic braided river system and results derived from this research provide interesting comparisons to conclusions gained from previous studies which have mainly concentrated on temperate river systems. Patterns of dispersion are shown to relate intimately to the macroscale morphology of the braided river valley, and also to the vertical tendency of the channel network. Storage of fine contaminated sediments are shown to relate to the bar-pool morphology of the channel. Attention is drawn to the performance and limitations of existing sediment dispersion models in relation to the complexity of the processes they are trying to model.