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In Soils of Niue Island, South Pacific

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In Soils of Niue Island, South Pacific Geochemical Journal, Vol. 24, pp. 371 to 378, 1990 Anomalous Hg contents in soils of Niue Island, South Pacific NEIL E. WHITEHEAD', JOHN BARRIE2 and PETER RANKIN3 Nuclear Sciences Group, Division of Physical Sciences, D.S.I.R. P.O.Box 31-312, Lower Hutt, New Zealand', Avian Mining Ltd., 24 Jindvik Place, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia2 and Division of Land and Soil Sciences, D.S.I.R., Private Bag, Taita, New Zealand3 (Received September 10, 1990; Accepted December 29, 1990) Niue Island, a raised coralline atoll in the South Pacific, has soils that have long been known to have strongly anomalous radioactivity. We now show that there is also a highly anomalous Hg content in the soils. It is associated with the radioactivity and the goethite/gibbsite content and the values are as high as those in soils over known Hg-mineralisation in volcanic settings, though no mineralisation is known on Niue and such an occurrence on this coral island would be geochemically unusual. INTRODUCTION GEOLOGY AND SOILS OF NIUE ISLAND Niue Island in the South Pacific is a raised A detailed description of the geological set coral atoll, located at 19° S and 169° W. The in ting of Niue Is. may be found in Schofield (1959) terior of the island is dolomitised, and is covered and a summary follows. by reddish-brown soils rich in Fe, Al and Niue Island is a raised coral atoll consisting phosphate in the form of goethite, gibbsite and of seaward cliffs rising steeply from the sea but crandallite respectively (the mean soil P205 is girded by a terrace on which sits Alofi, the 4%; Whitehead et al. in press). The 230Th/234U capital. The rim of the island rises to 60 m above ratios are 20-30, hence relatively little parent sea level and the interior shallow basin is about 234Uis present . The 230Thcontent corresponds to 40 m above sea level. The interior basin has been an equilibrium 238Ucontent of about 1000 mg extensively eroded into pinnacles. It is also kg-1, but 238Usoil contents are only about 30 mg covered with forest and access is difficult. kg-'. The soils have recently been shown Dolomite is known from many parts of the (Whitehead et al., in press) to contain a 211Pa island, mainly the interior basin. From the anomaly with "'Pa /231U ratios about 7. Radio magnetic measurements of Hill (1980) and nuclide soil contents so much in excess of bathymetry measurements, it is inferred that equilibrium values are unique, but we report there is a thickness of 300 m of coral, and here the presence of an additional geochemical dolomite, on top of a caldera-like structure, anomaly consisting of high values of Hg. The ex probably volcanic. Two drill-holes (Barrie, 1979) planation for these various anomalies is only penetrated to about 280 m below the surface and partly clear. This presentation is preliminary, encountered carbonates of Miocene age, but fail but changes in research funding mean that fur ed to reach any volcanic rock. All limestone en ther work will probably be impossible, so the countered was clean and white and showed no results are offered as a progress report. signs of mineralisation, but in the deepest regions, unlike the surface regions, thermally mature kerogen was found, showing geothermal 371 372 N. E. Whitehead et al. heat had affected the lower layers. Fossil remains original atoll topography is well preserved in from the surface of the control lagoon corres dicating only minor lowering of the land surface pond to a Plio-Pleistocene age (approximately by weathering. 1.8 Ma B.P.). Dacitic ash is found in a layer in the nearby Evidence from Uranium/Thorium series ra seabed (Glasby et al. in press) sufficiently thick dionuclides in the soils (Whitehead et al. submit to account for a substantial fraction of the ted to Isotope Geoscience) shows that the soils thickness of Niue Is. soils if ash was deposited were in contact briefly with seawater at 470 ka also on Niue Is. and subaerial weathering occur B.P. and absorbed U. The time was brief red. The ash has been linked to a Pleistocene because no large coral masses of that date have eruption on the Tongan island of Tofua. been found. The radionuclide ratios in the soils The soils are lateritic and contain 30-40% of also show that they were strongly leached some both Fe and Al (expressed as oxides). They con time in the interval 70-100 ka B.P. but not by tain a mean value of 1000 mg kg-' Cr, and 2400 seawater. The evidence is therefore that since mg kg-' Sr, but only 0.8% Si (as oxide), 1.7 mg 470 ka B.P. the soils have been above sea level. kg-' Th and 80 mg kg-' Zr. The latter three The island is in a tectonically active region, and values are very low for such normally leach-resis the causes of exposure to seawater and subaerial tant elements in lateritic soils and suggest very exposure are not simply changes in sealevel asso strong leaching has taken place. In contrast the ciated with glacial and interglacial periods but ris mean P (as oxide) is 4%, and since phosphate is ing and falling of the island itself as it slowly relatively easily leached, such values imply moves towards the Tonga Trench (Recy and Du phosphate was added to the soils well after initial pont, 1982, Dupont and Herzer, 1985). formation. In a few locations P values are as All known rock on the island is carbonate. high as 18%, but the origin of the P is not clear. The-soil survey of Blakemore et al. (1979) which There are no large contemporary bird popula examined in excess of 100 sites chosen to be tions or obvious guano deposits on the island. representative of different types of terrain on the island, collected samples of underlying rock EXPERIMENTAL which was always aragonite, calcite or dolomite, not volcanic rock, and no alteration or Many soil samples have been gathered from mineralisation was visually observed, nor Niue Is. for analysis of major and trace elements detected on analysis of the immediately underly and the results are given elsewhere (Blakemore et ing rock. Most of Niue Is. has therefore been al., 1979; Whitehead, et al., in press). For this surveyed but no mineralisation noticed below study, soil samples from 47 soil A & B horizons the soils or deeper in the holes drilled. were analysed for mercury, using a gold film Conventional hydrothermal phenomena such mercury analyser manufactured by the Jerome as springs are not present, nor has the island sur Instrument Corporation. Eight of the soils face water such as streams, because the coral is were independently analysed at the Chemistry extremely porous and rainwater sinks straight Division of the New Zealand D.S.I.R. by photo into it. acoustic analysis and the values found were The spaces between pinnacles in the interior generally within 10% of the other method. basin are filled with coral debris and soil as thick as 1 m. In areas where pinnacles are most sparse RESULTS the soils are only about 15-25 cm thick. The origin of the soils is unlikely to be simple erosion For all results combined, the mean and stan of the coral, since calculations show for most dard deviation were 980 ± 880µg kg-' . The soil components the required erosion would be distribution is log-normal; the minimum value hundreds of meters, which is unlikely, and the was 70 pg kg-' and the maximum 3680µg kg-'. Hg anomaly of Niue Island, S. Pacific 373 NIUE ISLAND 23'20 2000 1000-N-12.60] N .' 730 220 270 410 100 1 420 .\21 PO 17 2 •54 , . -, _000 '~ 0 I It 111480 l 1810 705% h` 2600' I 355 \ 11 . 300 2 iIt I 11785 1890 !~ 365 1577 t Y 106~l~ 240 1025 257 570 200 070 1990 216 Q 5 10 km Fig. 1. Contour map of Hg in Niue Island soils. Dots represent sampling points, but for clarity not all detailed results are shown. Superimposed are dashed contours for alpha activity. The lowest contour is 2 counts per minute (100 mg sample as measured in a Beckman Widebeta instrument) and thereafter the contour interval is 1 count per minute. Lower and upper quartiles were 260 and 1560 pg results are very similar to the alpha activity con .kg-'. tours. Figure 1 shows a map of Niue Is. with con tours drawn in for Hg. The values are all higher than the global 50,ug kg-' mean quoted by Stock DISCUSSION and Cucuel, (1934), and show a concentration No mineralisation was found near the sur towards the middle of the island. Superimposed face on Niue Island, though the soil surveys car are dotted lines showing the contours for the ried out have been the equivalent of an extensive alpha activity. The highest Al and Fe contour geochemical exploration, yet if the island is 374 N. E. Whitehead et al. Regression of Zn on m 300 .... 250 * * 200 *........ * f * N 150 * * * * 100 .. ...... * * * * * ** * * * 50 * * * * I I I I I 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 m Fig. 2. Regression for Zn (ppm) on depth (m) for samples taken from the Fonuakula well. Taken from the raw data of Rodgers et al. (1982). really not mineralised the results for Hg in the soils Fe and Al contents. There was no relationship of are exceptional. They are typical of those found Hg content to the organic content of the soils.
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