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Assessment of Heavy Metals Contamination of the Beach Sands along the Coastline between Damietta and Port-Said, Mediterranean Sea, Egypt |
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PP: 59-73 |
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doi:10.18576/jrna/070309
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Author(s) |
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R.A. SEIF,
A. M. OSMAN,
R.M. ATTIA,
A. EL-AZAB,
I. H. KHALIFA,
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Abstract |
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| The aim of this study was to investigate the variation in heavy metal contents and their natural and artificial sources in beach sands along the coastal area between the cities of Port-Said and Damietta, Mediterranean Sea, Egypt. The pollution load indexes and possible ecological impacts with respect to sediment quality guidelines were discussed. Twenty samples were collected from the beach and sabkha sediments and analyzed by XRF technique for 13 heavy metals. Uranium was analyzed by the oxidimetric titration method. The heavy metals; Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ga, Sr, Y, Rb, V and Ba have lower concentration than their corresponding standard levels except Zr and U. According to multivariate statistical analysis, four factors were determined. The first factor consists of Cr, Ni, V and Ba could be considered as a natural process factor and related to the presence of ferromagnesium and plagioclase feldspar minerals. The second factor include Zr, Sr and Nb represents the presence of heavy minerals such as zircon, monazite and garnet., The third factor includes Cu, Zn and Pb and could be considered as anthropogenic factor. The fourth factor involves U and and could be connected to uranium mobilization as radioactive factor. The analyzed heavy metals have negative values of geoaccumulation factor (Igeo), low values of contamination factors (Cf), except few samples considered as uncontaminated to moderately contaminated with Cr, Zr, Ga, Cu, Pb and Zn. The Cd values are lower than 6.0 in nine sediment samples randomly distributed in the study area and indicate low degree of contamination. The calculated Cd values in the rest of samples (>.0.6) are of moderate degree of contamination, most of them are located at Port-Said area. The values of PLI recorded for all samples ranged from 0.07 to 0.5 (< 1.0) indicate a good quality of the beach and sabkha sediment of the study area. |
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