Spatial distribution of heavy metals in surface soil horizons surrounding Erbil Steel company (ESC)‎ areas

الملخص EN

This study was carried out during September 2015 to investigate the impact of Erbil Steel Company (ESC) on soil pollution of the surrounding area.

Soil samples were collected from 40 sites around Erbil Steel Company at different distances and eight directions (N, NE, E, ES, S, SW, W and NW) on five different circled belts named (50, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 m) far from the source of the pollution in the study area and 1 sample as control sample.

The samples were analyzed for some physico- chemical properties, as well as for the five heavy metals Iron (Fe), Chromium (Cr), Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn) Copper (Cu) and Nickel (Ni) by using a portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF).

As a results of the distance that effected on the heavy metals concentration are: Fe had the highest concentration value and ranged from 4752.00 to 15873.69 mg.kg-1 while Cr had the lowest concentration value and ranged from 4.00 to 74.00 mg kg-1 and Pb, Zn, Cu and Ni concentrations ranged from (56.00 to 378.00, 1.27 to 220.40, 8.00 to 85.20 and 1.43 to 10.17 mg.kg-1) respectively.

An interpolation property was applied to prepare the special map of natural distribution of heavy metals of the soils in the studied area using Arc GIS 10.1 programs.