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Heavy metal distribution in surface sediments of the Tirumalairajan river estuary and the surrounding coastal area, east coast of India

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Abstract

Surface sediments collected at the Tirumalairajan river estuary and their surrounding coastal areas were analyzed for the bulk metal concentration. The sediments were collected from post- and premonsoon seasons. Dominances of heavy metals are in the following order: Fe > Mn > Zn > Pb > Cu in both seasons from estuary and coastal area. The results reveal that Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb, and Zn demonstrated an increased pattern from the estuary when compared to the coastal area. The heavy metal pattern of the sediments of the Tirumalairajan river estuary and its surrounding coastal area offered strong evidence that the coastal area was a major source of heavy metals to the estuarine region. For various metals, the contamination factor and geoaccumulation index (I geo) have been calculated to assess the degree of pollution in sediments. The contamination factor and geoaccumulation index show that Zn, Pb, and Cu unpolluted to moderately pollute the sediments in estuarine part. This study shows the major sources of metal contamination in catchment and anthropogenic ones, such as agriculture runoff, discharge of industrial wastewater, and municipal sewage through the estuary and adjoining coastal area.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the valuable suggestions given by Abdullah M. Al-Amri, Editor-in-Chief, which greatly helped in the final presentation of the paper. The authors are grateful to anonymous referee for the constructive comments and suggestions which led to significant improvements to the manuscript. Special thanks are due to Dr. M.V. Prasanna, Lecturer, Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University of Technology, Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia, and S. Subramanian, Laboratory Manager, BEFESA, Desalination Plant, Chennai, for fine tuning the manuscript. The authors would also like to thank the results generated by ICP-OES, IIT Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India

    S. Venkatramanan, T. Ramkumar, I. Anithamary & S. Vasudevan

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  1. S. Venkatramanan
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  2. T. Ramkumar
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  3. I. Anithamary
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  4. S. Vasudevan
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Correspondence to S. Venkatramanan.

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Venkatramanan, S., Ramkumar, T., Anithamary, I. et al. Heavy metal distribution in surface sediments of the Tirumalairajan river estuary and the surrounding coastal area, east coast of India. Arab J Geosci 7, 123–130 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-012-0734-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-012-0734-z

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