Translocation phenomena in soils affected by uranium mining in East Thuringia

Uranium mining has a severe impact on landscapes, including the large-scale destruction of native soils, the formation of technogenic soils and the enrichment of mining-related elements such as uranium or sulphur in the pedosphere. Although chemical information about the fate of uranium and other elements released by mining into soils is known, the understanding of soil formation processes and factors such as the main parameters controlling translocation phenomena at these extremely disturbed sites is insufficient. For more than 40 years, East Thuringia formed a central part of the uranium mining area of the WISMUT, then the third-largest producer of uranium in the world, providing an ideal base for studying the effects of uranium mining on the pedosphere at both the site and landscape levels.