The oil sands mining and extraction processes in Canada produce large volumes of tailings that are a mixture of mainly water, clay, sand, chemicals and bitumen. This residue is deposited into tailings ponds where sand settles faster than fine clays which require many years to fully consolidate. Therefore, land reclamation and water recirculation become significant environmental impacts. The tai...

Abstract. The world's large rivers are facing reduced sediment loads due to anthropogenic activities such as hydropower development and extraction. Globally, estimates of sand extraction from river systems lacking, in part the pervasive distributed nature processes. For Mekong River, widely assumed estimate basin-wide is 50 Mt per year. This figure based on 2013 likely be outdated. Here, we dem...