Historical Metal Inputs to the Western Mediterranean Associated with Mining Activities in SW Spain

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It has been recently shown that present trace metal inputs to the western Mediterranean are mainly controlled by atmospheric deposition of European and Saharan aerosols (Guieu et al., 1997). However, fluvial inputs may be locally important, especially near industrialized and mining areas. Cu, Cd and Zn enrichments in the Alboran Sea have been explained as a consequence of inflow into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar of metal enriched Atlantic surficial water of the Gulf of Cfidiz (van Geen et al. 1997 and references therein). The metal enrichment in these shelf waters is related to the acid mine drainage of the Tinto and Odiel rivers (Elbaz-Poulichet and Leblanc, 1996; van Geen et aL, 1997). These two rivers drain the eastern part of the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB), one of the oldest and most important sulphide mining districts in the world, and their watershed includes giant and supergiant massive sulphide deposits with total reserves exceeding 1400 million tons. The mining activities in the IPB started in the Late Bronze Age, with major development during the Phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman times (from about 800 B.C. until 410 A.D.). After the Romans, mining activities were very limited and discontinuous, until their resurgence in the middle of the 19th century. The aim of this contribution is to evaluate historical and present metal inputs to the Gulf of Cfidiz, and consequently to the western Mediterranean, from the mining and smelting activities in the eastern part of the Iberian Pyrite Belt.