Iron speciation of sediments from Kuhai Lake in China by Moessbauer spectroscopy

The vertical distribution of iron species in the sediments collected from Kuhai Lake was investigated in this study. Their Moessbauer spectra were composed of one sextet and four doublets ascribable to one paramagnetic high-spin Fe3+, two paramagnetic high-spin Fe2+ with different quadrupole splittings, and one diamagnetic low-spin Fe2+ that corresponds to pyrite (FeS2). The distribution of pyrite was considered to reflect the climatic change during the past 2,000 years. Moessbauer spectroscopy was successfully applied to the analysis of the Kuhai Lake sediments so as to reconstruct the history of the past climate.