Chemical composition and salt load in rainwater of Mosul city-Nineveh governorate

الملخص EN

The present study reports the chemical composition and atmospheric salt load rainwater of Mosul city/ Nineveh Governorate / Iraq.

The sampling were done from October 2012 to March 2013.

Twenty six samples were collected and analyzed for pH, ion concentration (Ca++, Mg++, K+, Na+, CI-, HCO3-, SO4--) and electrical conductivity.

Total rainwater was 338.55mm.

The results show that the volume weighted mean (VWM) pH and electrical conductivity in the rainwater were 6.83 and 114.22µS.cm-1 respectively.

Cation and anion concentration took the following order : Ca++ ˃ Mg++ ˃ Na+ ˃ K+ and HCO3- ˃ CI- ˃ SO4=.

HCO3- and Ca++ contributed 65.3% of the total ions in the rainwater.

Equivalents ratios for different ionic components to sodium, revealed higher values in rainwater than that of seawater.

This indicates the dominance of non-marine in studied samples.

Analyses revealed that loads delivered from the fallen precipitation in the urban city of Mosul was about 0.1167kg cl-/m3 of chloride in rainwater which equal numerically to 395kg NaCI.

h-1 of land.