ABSTRACT
The contamination of surface waters, groundwater, soils and sediments by hazardous trace metals is a widespread environmental problem resulting from mining activities and industrial discharges. Accurate chemical modelling of metal transport and partitioning in these complex, multicomponent systems requires direct knowledge of how metals are sequestered by natural solid phases. These solids are complicated mixtures of weathered primary minerals and crystalline and amorphous secondary phases that precipitate from coexisting waters. Hazard assessment and remediation in complex systems are often difficult because few spectroscopic probes are specific and sensitive enough to provide bonding information about individual metals at low bulk concentrations.
