Spatial and heavy metal assessment in beach sands of east coast of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Beach sand samples were collected from the East Coast of Tamil Nadu and the concentration of major and trace elements in them were determined using the Energy-dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) technique. The concentration of elements such as Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, Zr & Sr was determined to assess the contamination status and the degree of pollution level. The abundance of elements in the samples was found to occur in the order: Si > Ca > Fe > Al > Mg > K > Ti > Mn > Zr > Sr > Zn > Pb > Ni > Cd > Cu > Co. The mean concentration of the elements in the beach sand was compared with those in the Earth's Crust, Sandstones, and Ultrabasic Rocks to see if there were any anomalies. The assessment of pollution was carried out by computing the Enrichment factor (EF). The enrichment factor of Fe & Mn indicates that they are possibly from the anthropogenic sources. XRD analysis was carried out to study the influence of heavy metals in the sand samples collected from the study area. SEM-EDX analysis was utilized to reveal the morphology and elemental composition of the selected sand samples. The distribution of metal concentration in the study area was identified by plotting the spatial map. The inter-relationship between the elements was analyzed using the Pearson Correlation Matrix to differentiate between the origin of metals namely anthropogenic or geogenic sources.