M. Lafleche

Over 300 colonial coarse earthenwares kiln wasters uncovered from 16 potter's workshops in southern Québec were analysed using inductively coupled-plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). A sub-sample was analysed through inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). These analyses were first conducted for the needs of defining ceramic reference groups, but the study also demonstrates that major elements and ICP-AES geochemical datasets can

... Partial melting is interpreted as occurring just before oceanic accretion. Geochemical attributes suggest that the peridotites belong to the Ronda and Beni Bousera peridotitic depleted end-member clan. Thus they are believed to be of subcontinental origin. ...

Two sediments cores were collected from the deepest part of Lake Clair (Québec, Canada) to assess the historical sources of Pb additions to the lake. The cores were collected by divers by carefully inserting a Plexiglas tube into the sediments. To determine the stratigraphic ages of the sediments, (210)Pb and (137)Cs activities were counted by gamma-ray spectroscopy. Lead concentrations and isotopic ratios were performed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), following digestion of the samples with a mixture of HF, HNO(3), and HClO(4) acids and Pb separation by anion-exchange chromatography. Starting at the middle of the 19th century, Pb content of the sediments increased until 1975. The maximum Pb enrichment factor of 35 times (relative to the natural background) was found in sediments deposited in 1975. At this time, excess Pb flux was estimated to be about 0.03 g m(-2) yr(-1). Before 1872, the Pb isotopic ratios were relatively stable (mean (206)Pb/(207)Pb = 1.20 +/- 0.01), reflecting the natural Pb background. Between 1872 and 1894, the source of anthropogenic Pb was highly radiogenic as shown by the Pb isotopic signatures of the sediments (mean (206)Pb/(207)Pb = 1.22 +/- 0.01), possibly reflecting deforestation and agricultural developments in the St.-Lawrence Valley. Between 1894 and 1937, widespread use of industrial and domestic charcoals may explain the isotopic composition of Pb accumulated in the sediments (mean (206)Pb/(207)Pb = 1.19 +/- 0.01). From 1937 to 1975, Pb isotopic compositions became less radiogenic ((206)Pb/(207)Pb from 1.18 to 1.17) even though elemental Pb abundance reached extremely high values (623 mg kg(-1)). This isotopic shift reflects increased use of alkyl-lead in gasoline. For sediments accumulated between 1967 and 1996, the U.S. contribution to anthropogenic Pb accumulated in Lake Clair sediments amounted to between 30 and 63%.

The Blake River Group of the late Archean Abitibi Greenstone Belt is characterized by the abundance of differentiated lava series as well as by the presence of coeval tholeiitic and calc-alkaline eruptives. Differentiated tholeiites from this group are interpreted as the product of magma ...

... There are apparently no suitable source rocks now exposed to the north (and west) of the Pontiac in the Abitibi Subprovince, but some might have been in Late Archaean times be-fore or following the first pulses of the Ken-oran orogeny. ...