Application of radio-dating methods in marine areas of Greece

Chronology models based on radiotracers are useful for dating aquatic sediments influenced by industrialization. Among the many natural (e.g.  7 Be,  234 Th, 210 Pb) and artificial (e.g.  137 Cs, 238,239,240 Pu) radiotracers, the proper ones to study the industrial impact and reconstruct past events during the last 100 years, are  210 Pb and  137 Cs. Mining belongs to the industries with great ecological impact in the aquatic environment, as mines are situated near environmental sensitive areas such as coasts, rivers and lakes. Additionally, the accurate historical reconstruction may provide information regarding the mine footprint in the aquatic environment so as to assess the previous or the remaining contamination, in case of on-going or abandoned mines. In the present study, the retrospective investigation in a coastal area of Lavrio, near an abandoned metallic mine is attempted, using the  210 Pb and  137 Cs methodologies and the emerged difficulties are discussed.