HEAVY METAL DISTRIBUTION IN GRAIN SIZE FRACTION IN SURFACE SEDIMENTS: POLLUTION ASSESSMENT OF IRAQI COASTSDounia K. Kassaf Al-Khuzie, Zahraa Al-Hatem, Hala Ali Shabar, Wesal Fakhri Hassan and Zuhair Ali AbdulnabiAbstract The distribution of grain size in coastal sediments may provide information on the existence and environment of the sedimentation processes and their transport. Ten samples were tested for sieve analysis. the samples was sieved in sieves arranged from coarse to fine as follow (4, 2, 1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.355, 0.12, 0.075, 0.038 mm and pan). Samples were analyzed with AAS for Cd, Ni, Cu, Mn and Fewhile V and Aswere measured by using the ICP technique. The overall result was as shown: Al>Fe>Mn>V>Cu>As>Pb>Ni>Cd. The Arsenic concentration exceeded the detection limits, for most metals, the presence of heavy metals in multiple classes of particle sizes showed greater accumulations in fractions of fine-scale. That the level of metals increases as the size of the particle decreases excluding for Fe, Ni, and Pb The low E.F. in both bulk and fractionated samples. The high E.F. values in ST.5 for Pb in 0.15 mm and ST.8 for Ni in 0.355mm fractions exceeded 2.0. According to The results of I-geo, the sediments were contaminated with Al, As, Fe, and Pb, while they were uncontaminated with the elements Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, V and the degrees of contamination differed according to this criterion. |