Geochemical Evaluation of Heavy Metals Pollution of Industrial Quarter Soils at Kirkuk City .Northern Iraq

Abstract

The study is concerned with geochemical evaluation of heavy metals pollution in Kirkuk soil, northern Iraq. Samples were collected from twenty – eight locations of surface soils at Kirkuk industrial quarter. The results obtained from heavy metals determination in this study showed that the concentration of Pb ranged from 71 to 433 mg/kg, Ni concentration was from 49 to 285mg/kg, Zn ranged from 32to 186 mg/kg, Cd, Cr and Cu were in the range from 1.0 to 4.9 mg/kg, 15 to 198 mg/kg and 24 to 182 mg/kg respectively. Variance coefficients revealed that one group of metals affected by anthropogenic pollution. Principal component analysis extracted two major components: PC1 with high loading of Cd , Pb ,Ni , and Cr is suggested to be the result of industrial activities and PC2 with contribution of Zn and Cu due to use of soil constituent processes or anthropogenic influences . Assessment of environmental state of soil by means of geochemical load indices (GLI) calculated for each metal showed that concentration of heavy metals were great in elements Pb (2.1) and Cd (3.55) show moderately to high pollution at Kirkuk industrial quarter soil .