Heavy metals and accumulation rates of sediments in Osaka Bay, the Seto Inland Sea, Japan

Abstract

The metal load into sediments and the change in the sedimentary environment of Osaka Bay in the Seto Inland Sea have been studied through geochemical analysis of core sediments, using both Pb-210 dating and a selective chemical leaching technique. Analytical results from a 6-m core of sediment show that copper and zinc pollution started in the late 1800's and the present enrichment ratios of copper and zinc, relative to background levels (20 mg kg−1 for Cu and 94 mg kg−1 for Zn), are 2.8 and 4.1, respectively. The present anthropogenic copper and zinc loads into Osaka Bay sediments, are 47 and 368 ton yr−1, while natural copper and zinc loads are 40 and 186 ton yr−1, respectively. Osaka Bay sediment at the present day is considered to be seriously polluted by zinc, now. The vertical profiles of copper and zinc in four successively separated fractions (10% acetic acid soluble fraction: F-HAC, 0.1M hydrochloric acid-soluble fraction: F-HCl, hydrogen peroxide-soluble fraction: F-H2O2 and hydrofluoric acid-soluble fraction: F-HF) from the core sediments indicate that enrichments of copper and zinc in the upper layer of the sediment are dependent on increases in the metal contents of the F-HAC, F-HCl and F-H2O2 fractions. Copper in F-HAC, and zinc in F-HAC and F-HCl, seem to be of anthropogenic origin.