Kaye Savage

Ph.D. Stanford University, 2001

Environmental  Geochemistry  

Email:  k.savage@vanderbilt.edu

Office: 6702 

General Interests 

Kaye Savage is interested in physical and geochemical processes which control the distribution and speciation of trace elements at and near the earth’s surface, particularly in mineralized environments. Characterization of soils, sediments, and weathering rock, and waters in contact with these materials, are her primary focus. This type of research aids efforts to remediate contaminated mine sites, as well as providing fundamental information about interactions between mineral surfaces and aqueous environments.

Current Research

Savage’s recent work has concentrated on gold mine sites in California, examining arsenic geochemistry within tailings piles, mineralized outcrops, and an open pit mine lake. Because the toxicity of arsenic is related to its chemical form, understanding the behavior of arsenic in natural systems is critical for assessing its potential health effects and mitigating its hazards in watershed and storage areas. In the Mother Lode Gold Mining District of California, located along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, arsenic is found in naturally occurring sulfide minerals such as pyrite ("fool's gold") and arsenopyrite. These minerals are concentrated in mine tailings, composed of waste rock and ore that has undergone varying degrees of crushing and chemical processing. When the arsenic minerals decompose during weathering, arsenic is released into more soluble minerals and into lake and river waters which react with the mine waste. Differences in the mode of arsenic uptake, mineral solubilities, and stabilities in different types of aqueous environments have significant consequences for release of arsenic to surface and ground waters.  

Distribution of arsenic in an open mine pit lake over time. Hot colors represent seasonally high arsenic concentrations, up to about 1100 µg/L.  

Atomic structure of pyrite showing arsenic substitution for sulfur in its structure, based on X-ray absorption spectroscopy undertaken at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. 

Other ongoing and new projects include studies of arsenic uptake in sulfate minerals, potential environmental impacts to soils from smelter fallout in the Pacific Northwest, oxidation rates of arsenian pyrite, and  impacts of mining in the southeastern U.S. 

What Students Do

            There are opportunities for students with a wide assortment of interests and backgrounds to participate in environmental geochemistry/water resources research. The use of information at different spatial scales, from field maps to molecular interactions, provides a means of introducing students to a variety of environmental geochemistry approaches. Students use a variety of techniques to address environmental problems: field mapping and sampling, spectroscopic analysis, wet chemical experimentation with model analogs to field conditions, and predictive modeling using equilibrium concepts and irreversible reaction paths. Students interested in public policy or economics will also find opportunities to explore, since many sites with significant contamination are also targets of public interest and government action. 

Selected Publications  

Savage, K.S., Tingle, T.N., O'Day, P.A., Waychunas, G.A., and Bird, D.K. (2000) Arsenic speciation in pyrite and secondary weathering phases, Southern Mother Lode Gold District, Tuolumne County, California. Applied Geochemistry  15(8):1219-1244. 

Savage, K.S., Bird, D.K., and Ashley, R. A. (2000) Legacy of the California gold rush: environmental geochemistry of arsenic in the southern Mother Lode Gold District. International Geology Review  42(5):385-415. 

Ashley, R.A. and Savage, K.S. (2001) Analytical data for waters of the Harvard open pit, Jamestown Mine, Tuolumne County, California, March 1998 – September 1999. USGS Open File Report OF-01-74 v. 1.0  

Savage, K.S., Ashley, R.A., and Bird, D.K. (2000) Wall rock geochemical contributions to a high-arsenic, alkaline pit lake at the Jamestown Mine, California. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 81(48):F525.  

Savage, K. S., Bird, D.K., and O’Day, P.A. (2000) Arsenic distribution in iron sulfate minerals associated with pyrite oxidation: natural and synthetic samples. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 32(7):A109 

Savage, K. S., Bird, D.K., O’Day, P.A. and Mehta, A. (1999) Characterization of synthetic and natural arsenian jarosite using synchrotron x-ray techniques. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 80(46):F378.  

Field Trips