ELSEVIER Journal of Geochemical Exploration 64 (1998) 321–337 Formational anomalies versus mining pollution: geochemical risk maps of Sardinia, Italy B. De Vivo a,Ł , M. Boni b , S. Costabile a a Dipartimento di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via Mezzocannone 8, 80134 Napoli, Italy b Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Largo S. Marcellino 10, 80138 Napoli, Italy Accepted 8 June 1998 Abstract In two recent papers by De Vivo and co-workers, multielement geochemical maps of the island of Sardinia have been compiled using 16,890 stream sediment samples collected from 1972 to 1975 by the Ente Minerario Sardo (EMS). For the compilation of the geochemical maps reported here, these EMS samples have been integrated with an additional 9260 stream sediment samples from 7 Conventions, agreed upon in the 1980’s by the Italian Ministry of Industry and EMS, and also include another 185 stream sediment samples from the sampling of 1972–75. From this combined dataset, new multielement geochemical maps (51 elements) of Sardinia have been produced, covering a surface of about 12,000 km 2 with a nominal density of 1 sample per 0.5 km 2 . These maps are published in an atlas of the Italy Geological Survey (Servizio Geologico d’Italia). This paper reports and discusses the results obtained by mapping the combinations of chemically compatible elements (in groups of three), by means of a GIS (Arc=Info), and the results of geochemical risk maps. For this compilation, the distribution of regional elements has been reclassified, using the known intervention criteria for agricultural, residential=recreational and commercial=industrial land use as thresholds.  1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: regional mapping; risk maps; Sardinia; statistical analysis; stream sediments 1. Introduction The growing awareness of the relationships be- tween animal and human health and the distribution of chemical elements in the environment is lead- ing many countries to compile baseline geochemical maps of their territories, after the pioneering regional geochemical atlases produced by Great Britain and Scandinavia (Webb et al., 1978; Howarth and Thorn- ton, 1983; Bolviken et al., 1986). Ł Corresponding author. Tel.: C39 (81) 580 3318; Fax: C39 (81) 5525739; E-mail: devivo@biol.dgbm.unina.it Two initiatives, the IGCP 360 Project (Global Geochemical Baseline) and the FOREGS Geochem- istry Task Group (Plant et al., 1997), will certainly give impetus in other countries to develop geo- chemical maps. The IGCP 360 Project, successor to IGCP 259, addresses the need for standardized geochemical databases worldwide and makes recom- mendations for standardized methods of preparing global geochemical maps (Darnley et al., 1995). The FOREGS Geochemistry Task Group has the aim of producing a geochemical map of Europe. In Italy the task of producing environmental geo- chemical maps is being pursued by a number of geo- 0375-6742/98/$19.00 c  1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0375-6742(98)00042-9