Contaminant transport refers to the physical and chemical processes governing the movement and fate of pollutants within environmental media such as groundwater, surface water, soil, and the atmosphere. It encompasses advection, dispersion, diffusion, sorption, volatilization, degradation, and transformation reactions that control contaminant distributions and concentrations over space and time. In research, contaminant transport is described by coupled partial differential equations derived from mass conservation, often incorporating multiphase flow, reactive transport, heterogeneity, and scale-dependent parameters. Accurate characterization and modeling of contaminant transport are critical for risk assessment, remediation design, and prediction of long-term contaminant plume evolution in engineered and natural systems.
While laws to limit pollution have been around for decades, heavy metal pollutants like lead remain a problem in many areas. Lead and other metals in the soil or air can move through urban ecosystems, impacting the health ...
Environment
May 20, 2025
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Climate change is melting glaciers and permafrost in the mountains outside of Boulder, Colorado, exposing rocks and freeing up minerals containing sulfate, a form of sulfur, to flow downstream into local watersheds.
Earth Sciences
May 16, 2025
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Natural and engineered systems have a whole world of chemistry inside their tiny pores—known as nanopores—that changes depending on the chemical functional groups inside.
Nanomaterials
May 12, 2025
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A team of researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine has developed a new strategy for identifying hazardous pollutants in soil, even ones that have never been isolated or studied in a lab.
Earth Sciences
May 9, 2025
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Research led by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC), with the participation of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), has reconstructed the history of pollution ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 28, 2025
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26
On February 18, contamination in the Kafue river, Zambia, led to a mass death of fish. Its water turned a deathly gray and adjacent farmland was poisoned. The drinking water it supplied to half a million residents of the ...
Environment
Apr 28, 2025
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A research team has uncovered surprising evidence of cross-border pollution reaching the Arctic, originating from an Icelandic volcanic eruption. The researchers used a cutting-edge combination of satellite and ground-based ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 22, 2025
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66
The Isle of Man government has said it is "fully committed to environmental protection and transparency" regarding its Unesco biosphere status—despite admitting that legacy landfill sites are discharging hazardous chemical ...
Environment
Apr 22, 2025
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29
Human consumption of antibiotics increased by 65% between 2000 and 2015. These drugs are not completely metabolized while passing through the body, nor completely destroyed or removed by most wastewater treatment facilities.
Environment
Apr 22, 2025
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37
Microplastics, tiny plastic particles found in everyday products from face wash to toothpaste, are an emerging threat to health and ecology, prompting a research team to identify what keeps them trapped in stream ecosystems.
Earth Sciences
Apr 21, 2025
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