Assessment of the Pollution of some Heavy Metals in the Sediments of the Tigris River in the City of Mosul- Northern Iraq

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Renewable Energies, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq

2 Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq

3 Department of Anesthesia Technologies, Al-noor university college, Nineveh, Mosul, Iraq

4 Physics Department, Faculty of Women for Arts, Science and Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

In this study, the concentrations of heavy metals were studied using atomic absorption spectroscopy of samples from the sediments of the Tigris River within the boundaries of the city of Mosul, northern Iraq, and the environmental parameters of heavy metals were calculated. The results showed that the average concentrations of Co, Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, and Ni in (ppm) were (8.78, 30.42, 0.179, 12.04, 75.53, and 144.75), respectively, where these results were higher than the international accepted average. It indicates that the main factor in the high concentrations of heavy metals in the environment of the Tigris River in the city of Mosul is the pollution caused by human activities. The results of the environmental treatments for the studied heavy metals showed that the values of the enrichment factor (EF) were moderately contaminated with Cu, Cd, Ni, and Zn and not contaminated with Co and Pb. The value of the contamination factor (CF) for the sediments of the Tigris River in the studied areas showed that the sediments of those areas are moderately polluted with Co, Ni, and Zn metals. The degree of contamination (Cdeg) for the sediments of the study area in general ranges from low - medium pollution, the pollution load index (PLI) average of (1.03) showed that the sediments of the study area were contaminated with heavy metals. Therefore, we conclude that the environment of the Tigris River is polluted with heavy metals, but it is not at the level that causes concern at present.

Keywords

References

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Pollution
Volume 9, Issue 2
April 2023
Pages 646-659

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