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.
When you're on a sandy beach or the banks of a river, transformed by rolling waves or slightly still waters, it's likely you're not thinking about what is happening just beneath the surface, where dirt and pollution are swirling ...
Environment
Apr 14, 2025
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13
A new study has shed light on the highly variable and climate-sensitive routes that substances from Siberian rivers use to travel across the Arctic Ocean. The findings raise fresh concerns about the increasing spread of pollutants ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 14, 2025
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158
Plastics are everywhere—from packaging and textiles to electronics and medical devices. As plastic waste breaks down, it releases microscopic particles that can penetrate our ecosystems, hinder plant growth, and potentially ...
Environment
Apr 9, 2025
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64
There are trillions of microplastic particles, ranging in size from about one micrometer to a few millimeters, on Earth. Many of these particles end up in the oceans, where they disrupt nutrient cycles, are ingested by marine ...
Environment
Apr 7, 2025
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29
Mountain snowpacks accumulate snow throughout the winter, building up stores of water that will supply communities across the American West throughout the long dry season.
Earth Sciences
Apr 2, 2025
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34
While the threat that microplastics pose to human and ecological health has been richly documented and is well known, nanoplastics, which are smaller than one micrometer (1/50th the thickness of an average human hair), are ...
Environment
Apr 1, 2025
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93
Researchers from the GenX Exposure Study have detected PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) associated with a nearby fluorochemical plant in the household dust of homes located in Cumberland and Bladen counties, North ...
Environment
Mar 31, 2025
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33
A recent study by the RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau shows extensive pesticide contamination in the landscape of the Upper Rhine Region. The research team led by Carsten Brühl shows for the first time that synthetic ...
Environment
Mar 12, 2025
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22
A team of research scientists led by US Food and Drug Administration chemist Timothy Duncan has found evidence of silver nanoparticles embedded in packaging used as an antimicrobial agent seeping into the dry food it is meant ...
It is well known that more and more plastic waste is ending up in soil and bodies of water. Researchers are particularly concerned about tiny micro- and nano-sized particles. It remains unclear how and to what extent they ...
Nanomaterials
Aug 29, 2024
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162
