Mapping, impacts, characterization and extent of acid sulfate soils in Finland

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Acid sulfate soils (ASS) cause big problems worldwide due to their potential to form sulfuric acid during oxidation of sulfidic materials, resulting in very acid soil (pH <4.0). Impacts include acidification of soil and water, leaching of metals, decreased nutrient supply, deterioration of water fauna and flora, and corrosion of infrastructure. These soils also exhibit poor geotechnical properties. Finland has the largest occurrences of ASS in Europe, mainly along the coast of the Baltic Sea. The EU Water Framework Directive brought about wide co-operation to reduce the harmful impacts of ASS in Finland. One urgent step was to localize and characterize the occurrences of ASS. The more than 10 year-long programme, led by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), started in 2009 and field work was completed in 2021. During the programme observations, measurements, sampling and analyses were made at 23 000 sites in an area of 5 010 000 ha. Traditionally ASS in Finland have been considered to comprise fine-grained sulfidic sediments and/or their oxidized layers, occurring on agricultural land along the coast below the highest shoreline of the Littorina Sea transgression. This study recognized and classified significant occurrences of other types of potentially harmful ASS materials: (1) coarse-grained ASS (sand), (2) organic ASS (peat) and (3) unsorted ASS (till material). The methods, definition and classification of Finnish ASS have been revised. We calculated the extent of ASS along the coast to be about 1 000 000 ha corresponding to 21% of the area covered in the past by the Littorina Sea, and three to six times more than earlier estimates. In addition, some occurrences of ASS were recognized inland, mainly related to black shales and sulfidic ores. The mapping data can be accessed via the GTK map service (www.gtk.fi) providing information about the distribution and properties of ASS.