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Of 15 or more minor elements in the world's principal river waters only aluminum, iron, manganese, barium and strontium range much over 100 μg l . (parts per billion). Most minor elements range at or below 100 μg 1 . and have median (or middle) values of 10 micrograms per liter or less. Significant areal differences in minor element content are found in the river waters. For example, Atlantic Coastal river waters in the aggregate are slightly more enriched in concentrations of silver, chromium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, strontium and titanium, and slightly deficient in barium and lithium when compared with median values for North America. Median values of ratios Ba Sr , Ni Cr and Ni Cu are reasonably consistent (within a factor of two) in principal drainage from North America. Noteworthy are consistent median ratios of Ni Cu for large rivers of United States, but the ratio tends to be slightly greater in global northern latitudes than in southern latitudes. Median values for aluminum, barium, copper, lead, molybdenum and silver in North American runoff are of the same order as published world averages for ocean water. Hydrologic and geochemical aspects of continental runoff are strongly implied in observations of minor element content of large rivers. Evidence to date is that median values of Ba Sr ratios are relatively uniform in global river waters. There is real danger in oversimplifying chemical systems in broad assessments of lower reaches of large drainage basins because individual hydrologic and chemical events upstream are largely obscured.

Presented at Conference on Physiological Aspects of Water Quality, September 8, 9, 1960, Washington, D. C. Three basic studies, using spectrographic methods, have been used to establish the occurrence of minor elements in natural waters. One study, of oceanborne chemicals in principal rivers, has established a method for the quantitative analysis of many minor elements. Strontium, barium, lithium, rubidium, chromium, nickel, copper, lead, boron, titanium, molybdenum, manganese, and vanadium occur most frequently in measurable quantities. Reconnaissance of the strontium in surface waters of the United States, shows that surface waters in parts of northern and western Texas and southern New Mexico and Arizona are comparatively high in strontium. A study of minor elements in selected waters of California is continuing. Assessment of preliminary data on uranium and radium in waters is facilitated by grouping data for 10 geotectonic regions of the United States.

Studies were made of the salinity relationships of ground-water inflow in the Saline River basin, Kansas, during the period 1945–49 in connection with the program of the Interior Department for development of the Missouri River basin. Mineralization in the Saline River near Russell, Kansas, fluctuates rapidly from more than 4400 ppm in low water stages to approximately 200 ppm at flood stage. Hydrographs for the 1947 and 1948 water years reveal that surface runoff comprised approximately 65 pct of the total runoff for each year and carried an estimated 24 pct of the annual dissolved solids discharge. The dissolved minerals in surface runoff were derived from surface contact and channel scour. In contrast, runoff from ground-water sources contributed 35 pct of the total runoff and 76 pct of the annual dissolved solids discharge. Ground water discharging to the Saline River and its tributaries carries strong concentrations of dissolved minerals that are leached from saliferous and gypsiferous shales and sands of the consolidated materials. Sodium, chloride, and sulfate are the most prominent constituents. Chloride concentrations of more than 1900 ppm were identified with low flow and the chloride ion is related hyperbolically to stream flow. Equations were developed by the least-squares principle to correlate between specific conductance of the water and several mineral constituents in solution.