Nine lakes within 75 km of the Flin Flon copper-zinc smelter were analyzed for sediment cores to reconstruct historic mercury and heavy metal deposition. The dataset is associated with a 2017 scientific publication and was published by Environment and Climate Change Canada. It documents contamination from the smelter, which was the largest single source of atmospheric mercury emissions in Canada until its closure in 2010.
Use Cases
- Modeling historical atmospheric deposition trends based on sediment core data.
- Assessing the spatial extent of contamination based on lake distances from the smelter.
- Studying the environmental legacy of a major point source of mercury emissions.
- Comparing heavy metal levels in sediment across multiple lakes mentioned in the study.
Strengths
- Data is linked to a peer-reviewed 2017 scientific publication with full QA/QC details.
- Covers nine specific lakes (Nekik, Douglas, Loucks, Phantom, McClurg, Cleaver, Naosep, Hamel, Meridian) at varying distances up to 75 km from the emission source.
- Focuses on a site described as the largest single source of atmospheric mercury emissions in Canada until 2010.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to a single industrial region in Canada.
Provenance
- Source
- Environment and Climate Change Canada
- Collection Method
- Sediment core analysis from nine lakes, as described in the associated publication.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-16 15:31:14.770988; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Nine lakes within 75 km of the Flin Flon smelter, Manitoba, Canada.