STUDY OF DISTRIBUTION OF SOME HEAVY METALS IN THE SOIL OF BASRA CITY- SOUTH OF IRAQ

Abstract

The Objective of the present work is to estimate the concentration levels of some heavy metals (Cd, Co, Cr, Fe, Ni and Pb) in the soil of Basra city- south of Iraq and indicating to the probable pollution resources with these heavy metals. To achieve this aim (35) soil samples were collected from all over Basra city as well as comparing the concentrations of the heavy metals in soil of Basra city with their concentrations in soils taken from (6) rural regions (Diayla, Haditha, Sinjar, Kirkuk- Musol road, Basra-Kut road, south of Emmara city) which are far away from the sources of pollution. Soil samples includes( industrial, commercial, residential and agricultural) areas (one sample for each area) with a depth(5-15) cm. preparation of samples after collecting for measuring by atomic absorption spectrophotometer(AAS) was conducted. After getting the results, comparing with the international limits for heavy metals in soil was done. Then contour maps were made that revealed the distribution of studied heavy metals in the Basra city. From the results we can found that most of heavy metals (Pb, Ni, Cr and Cd) increasing to the west of Basra city because of its closeness from the petroleum establishments like oil refinery of Al-Sha’eiba because the industrial waste of these industries contains high concentration of some heavy metals. There is also increasing in the concentration of some studied metals soil in the middle of Basra city especially Al-Jazzaer area which consider as a commercial area suffering from high traffic motion for automobiles and vehicles, like(Pb) as a by-product released from combustion of fuel due to the addition of (tetraethyl lead) to fuel as antiknocking agent. Then its cause an increasing of (Pb) in the atmosphere then precipitate on the soil, whereas decreasing of studied heavy metals was found to the east of Basra city which is consider as an agricultural area and have well vegetarian cover and far away from the industries establishments.