Application of environmental magnetism on crime detection in a highway traffic accident from Yangzhou to Guazhou, Jiangsu Province, China

Both elemental composition analysis and mineral magnetic measurements were used to infer the source of the earth dumped on a highway in China, which resulted in human life loss and injury in 2002. The results indicate that the earth and the samples from the potential two sources are very similar in geochemical compositions. However, magnetic properties show stronger difference among the samples. A plot of magnetic susceptibility (χ) vs. Anhysteretic Remanent Magnetization (ARM) clearly show that the earth at the accident site (sample No. 1) is closely matched with one sample (No. 4) from the source site B. Such a difference in geochemical and magnetic signatures among the samples is ascribed to the nature of the earth, which is derived from the Xiashu Loess in southern China. Our results indicate that environmental magnetic method can help to crime investigation by aiding in the provenance tracing of soils/sediments evidences in a simple, economic and non-destructive way.