TITLE:
Rare Earth Element Accumulation in Annually Flooded Soils along the Mississippi River in Southeastern Missouri
AUTHORS:
Michael T. Aide, Christine C. Aide
KEYWORDS:
Mississippi River Alluvium, Rare Earth Elements, Sediment Provenance, REE Signature, REE Bioavailability
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.13 No.12,
December
22,
2025
ABSTRACT: Throughout the history of modern soil science, protocols have been advanced to identify and characterize parent materials. More recently, rare earth element signatures have been employed to show uniformity or differences between parent materials. The morphology and evolution of the Mississippi River and its tributaries have created numerous parent materials and depositional environments. We observed representative 1) upland soils, 2) alluvial soils not receiving annual flooding and 3) annually flooded soils adjacent to the Mississippi River. Rare earth element signatures and appropriate rare earth element ratios support the premise that erosional materials from the upland soils after deposition becomes the parent material for soils on floodplains that receive upland sediment and for Mississippi River floodplain soils whose sediment originated in the upland regions, even if the sediment was partially transported by the Mississippi River. The rare earth element signatures do not corroborate the premise that Mississippi River floodplain soils obtain their parent materials from upland soils whose alluvial sediment is substantially composed of course-grain bedload.