Sedimentological and Heavy Metals Characteristics of Streets Dust in some Areas East of Baghdad for 2020

Huda Hadi Jassim

doi:10.46717/igj.54.2c.11ms-2021-09-30

Abstract

Road-side dust samples were collected during August in 2020 from selected areas of, Al-Rusafa, Baghdad, Iraq. A sedimentological and mineralogical analysis of street dust was conducted. Three areas were selected to study street dusts which are Al-Baladitat, Al-Obaidi and Ziona. The laboratory analyses were done in the Department of Geology, College of Science, University of Baghdad. The heavy metal contents were determined in the roadside dust using XRF Method. It was found that the dust is of muddy texture, and is believed to be transmitted with the various storms blowing on Baghdad or by the wheels of Cars. The results of mineralogical investigation revealed that the dust samples composed of quartz, feldspar, calcite, gypsum and sedimentary rocks fragments, as light minerals and the heavy minerals were found as garnet, epidote, chlorites, pyroxene, biotite, zircon, muscovite, hornblende, tourmaline. The heavy metals (Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn and Pb) in these streets dust samples were studied and used as indicator for pollution. two o main indices are applied: contamination factor, and pollution load index. The contamination factor for Co, Zn, Pb, and Ni is classified as class 2, which indicate moderately contamination, while the contamination factor for Fe and Cu is classified as class 1, which indicate low contamination. The pollution load index values in the all of studied sites are classified as class 2 (Deterioration on site quality) indicating local pollution, as well as denote perfection with class 0 of no pollution.

Highlights

Dust and sand storms are an ongoing problem in Iraq and other areas of the Middle East, almost frequent dust storms and one of the most prominent characteristics of summer in Iraq, raising a large amount of dust (Awadh, 2015)
The results of grain size analysis of dust samples of Al-Baladitat, Al-Obaidi and Ziona at the eastern part of Baghdad (Al-Rusafa) show that the silt and clay are a major part where the silt average (54.72%), ranging between 47.8 % -62.70%, Clay comes in the second rank in terms of the relative distribution with an average of 36.45 %, it ranges between 29.10% - 44.7%, and sand average (8.82%), ranges between 7.5% -9.8%, (Table 1)
The contamination factor (CF) for Ni classified as class 2 which indicate moderately contamination in all the studied sites, ranging from 1.00 to 1.13

Summary

Introduction

Dust and sand storms are an ongoing problem in Iraq and other areas of the Middle East, almost frequent dust storms and one of the most prominent characteristics of summer in Iraq, raising a large amount of dust (Awadh, 2015). Urbanization and industrial processes development and increase extraction of oil and the subsequent burning of associated gas especially during the past years in Baghdad city, these exerts formed a heavy pressure on its urban environment. For these reasons it is necessary to know the main sedimentological and mineralogical characteristics of the street dust in Baghdad. This work was carried out on roadside dust in nine selected sites of the city of Baghdad (Fig. 1) (Al-Jaberi and Al-Dabbas, 2014)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion