Characteristics of Natural and Urban Soils - Dealing with Contaminated Sites: From Theory Towards Practical Application - page 133

On the basis of the ionic radii in Table 2.9 one can see that vanadium fits very well
in crystalline oxidised compounds of divalent iron. Forms of iron oxy-hydroxides
often combine a divalent and a trivalent form of iron, such as in magnetite, Fe 3 O 4 .
According to the review of vanadium in soils by Jones et al. ( 1990 ), oxy-anions
of V 5+ are soluble over a wide range of pH and hence are the mobile forms in
soils, but the degree of their mobility depends on physical and geochemical factors.
Precipitation of less soluble forms of V may be caused by:

• the presence of reducing agents;

• local concentrations of elements forming insoluble vanadates (e.g. Ca);

precipitation in the form of uranyl ((UO 2 ) 2+ ) cations; •

the presence of Al 3+ or Fe 3+ ions.

•

Of these factors the last one is richly present in the weathered seams of the local
bedrock.
Chemical analysis of samples having visible iron oxides and having none,
showed the vanadium is restricted to the ferruginous accumulations in these soils
and the latter clearly have extremely low solubility. It could be concluded there is
no soil contamination at this site and there is no reason for limiting the use of the
land.

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