Surface Soil Heavy Metal Concentrations Across a Flood-Risk Gradient in Pennsylvania

Thirty surface soil samples from five sites in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, USA, provide concentrations for 12 heavy metals and metalloids measured in parts per billion. Author Tia Warrick collected the data using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) following standardized acid digestion procedures. The dataset was last updated on April 9, 2026, and was used for a screening-level risk assessment calculating chronic daily intake and hazard quotients.

Use Cases

• Conducting screening-level environmental risk assessments based on heavy metal concentrations.
• Analyzing correlations between flood exposure gradients and soil contamination based on site classifications.
• Modeling chronic daily intake (CDI) and hazard quotients (HQ) for human health risk from soil metals.
• Comparing concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and other analytes across different environmental settings.

Strengths

• Includes concentrations for 12 specific analytes: arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, lithium, nickel, phosphorus, thallium, and zinc.
• Data collection followed a standardized protocol using ICP-MS and acid digestion, suggesting methodological consistency.
• Samples are structured across a defined flood-risk gradient from low to high exposure at five sites with six replicates each.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is very small at 85.2 KB, indicating a limited scope of 30 samples from a single county.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Tia Warrick.

Collection Method

Surface soil samples collected and analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) following standardized acid digestion.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-09 06:36:43; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, USA.