RESEARCH ARTICLE Ferruginous compounds in the airborne particulate matter of the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Fernanda Vasconcelos Fonseca Tavares 1 & José Domingos Ardisson 1 & Paulo César Horta Rodrigues 1 & José Domingos Fabris 2,3 & Luis Eugenio Fernandez-Outon 4 & Vanusa Maria Delage Feliciano 1 Received: 9 March 2017 /Accepted: 22 June 2017 /Published online: 6 July 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017 Abstract Samples of soil, iron ore, and airborne particulate matter (size <10 μm) were analyzed with the main goal of investigating the differentiating physicochemical properties of their ferruginous compounds. These data were used to iden- tify whether the sources of airborne particulate matter in the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, are either from natural origin, as, for instance, re-suspension of particles from soil, or due to anthropogenic activities, meaning that it would be originated from the many iron ore minings surrounding the metropolitan area. Numerical simulations were used to model the atmospheric dispersion of the airborne particulate matter emitted by iron mining located at the Iron Quadrangle geodomain, Minas Gerais. Results from these nu- merical simulations supported identifying the sites with the highest concentrations of airborne particulate matter in the metropolitan area. Samples of these suspended materials were collected at the selected sites by using high-volume air sam- plers. The physicochemical features of the solid materials were assessed by X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, mag- netometry, and 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. The soil mate- rials were found to be rich in quartz, aluminum, organic mat- ter, and low contents of iron, mainly as low crystalline iron oxides. The samples of the iron ores, on the other hand, con- tain high concentration of iron, dominantly as relatively pure and crystalline hematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 ). The samples of the air- borne particulate matter are rich in iron, mainly as hematite, but contained also quartz, aluminum, and calcium. Mössbauer spectroscopy was used to evaluate the hyperfine structure of 57 Fe of the hematite both from the iron ore and the soil sam- ples. The structural characteristics of the hematite of these particulate materials were further explored. The direct influ- ence of the iron ore mining on the composition of the airborne particulate matter was clearly evidenced based on the trace ability of hematite to its source of emission. Even the atmo- spheric air on regions relatively far away from the mining activities is also significantly influenced. Keywords Air quality . Airborne particulate matter . Iron oxide . Mössbauer spectroscopy . Iron mining . Iron quadrangle Introduction The increasingly globalized and industrialized human activi- ties in an interconnected world have markedly influenced both the air quality and climate changes at local, even global scales. The rapid population growth, increasing consumption of fossil energy sources, and wood burning are the primary forces pro- moting large amounts of harmful pollutants and greenhouse gases. Their accumulation in the atmosphere and the environ- ment seriously threatens and eventually may change the suit- able conditions for life on Earth (Smith et al. 2009; Saldiva Responsible editor: Gerhard Lammel * Fernanda Vasconcelos Fonseca Tavares ferufv@yahoo.com.br 1 Developing Center of Nuclear Technology, Campus UFMG– Pampulha, Av. Presidente Antônio Carlos 6.627, Caixa Postal 941, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 30123-970, Brazil 2 Federal University of Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM), Diamantina, Minas Gerais 39100-000, Brazil 3 Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Campus–Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270-901, Brazil 4 Department of Physics, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Campus–Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270-901, Brazil Environ Sci Pollut Res (2017) 24:19683–19692 DOI 10.1007/s11356-017-9613-1