Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
F i g . 1
The map of investigated coal mine (Fedorovsky open-pit mine) overburden of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
1
East
dump;
2
west dump;
3
reservoir in the site of the fl ooded coal mine
temperature is +3.6 °C. The coldest month is
January (average temperature of −13.5 °C), the
warmest - July (+20.8 °C). The annual sum of
positive temperatures above +10 °C is 2,200-
2,250 °C. Average annual rainfall is 315 mm,
most of which falls between May and July.
Low-powered snow cover, the height of which
does not usually exceed 10-20 cm, is held from
November to March, an average of 145 days a
year. Freezing of soils on the upland reaches
2 m. It is characterized by high variability of
the weather - the winter thaws and frosts in the
summer.
The bedrocks of the study area are clay, shale,
limestone, marl, and other basic rocks, which are
characterized by a heavy mechanical structure
and usually saline (Storozhenko
1952
). The soil
cover consists mainly of dark chestnut soils and
salt marshes (Storozhenko
1952
,
1967
; Evstifeev
1959
). In the immediate proximity of the dump
are common steppe salt licks in the multicolored
clays with thin (up to 6 cm) humus-eluvial hori-
zons and dense saline illuvial horizons with a
columnar structure. Reserves available to plant
moisture content are usually stored in the soils
until the third decade of May, and summer mois-
ture only appears after rainfalls (Miroshnichenko
and Buevich
1976
).
Zonal vegetation is represented by steppe
communities (Lavrenko and Borisov
1976
;
Miroshnichenko and Buevich
1976
; Selivanov
et al.
1964
). Dark chestnut soils are the most
common dry steppes dominated by
Stipa capil-
lata
L.,
Seseli ledebourii
G. Don,
Artemisia
nitrosa
Weber, and
Festuca valesiaca
Gaudin. On
low-power soils, communities dominated by
S.
capillata
,
F. valesiaca
,
Centaurea sibirica
L.,
Onosma simplicissima
L., and
Scorzonera austri-
aca
Willd. are formed. Saline soils are dominated
by halophytic forbs (
Limonium caspium
(Willd.)
Gams,
L. gmelinii
(Willd.) Kuntze,
Atriplex cana
C. A. Mey.,
Kochia prostrata
(L.) Schrad., and
Camphorosma lessingii
Litv.). Vast areas of
waste grounds, roads, and disturbed sites are
occupied by weeds, viz.,
Kochia scoparia
(L.)
Schrad.,
Artemisia sieversiana
Willd.,
Lactuca
tatarica
(L.) C. A. Mey.,
Lactuca serriola
L.,
Cirsium setosum
(Willd.) Besser,
Atriplex
sibirica
L., and
Chenopodium album
L.
The east dump, which has been monitored for
natural overgrowth, formed in the years 1941-
1978; some parts are not affected by the earthen
and other works from 1971. The dump compli-
cated multicolored montmorillonite clays with
the inclusion of coal dust, aleurolites, and argil-
lites. The density of rocks is uneven: 1.2-1.3 g/
sm
3
in the upper layers and 0.8-0.9 g/sm
3
at a
depth of 60-90 sm. The content of the rock
dump's slightly hydrolyzed N is 3.5-4.6 mg/100
g soil, mobile forms of P is 0.6-0.9 mg/100 g
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