GEMAS: The geochemical mapping of agricultural and grazing land soils of Europe

The GEMAS project started in 2008 with a joint field campaign of almost all geological surveys in Europe in cooperation with some external organizations. 2211 samples of agricultural soil and 2118 samples from land under permanent grass cover were collected from a large part of Europe over a total area of about 5 million sqkm. Analysis of 53 chemical elements were carried out and The initial results indicate that nature, geology and climate are the major driving forces for the mapped distribution of element patterns at the European scale. Once completed, this project will deliver good quality and comparable exposure data of metals in agricultural and grazing land soil.