الفهرس 
Implementation of magnetism and geochemistry tools on the environmental pollution assessment of the Abu Zaabal Area, South-East Delta, Egypt
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Abstract
The suitability of magnetic parameters as a pre-liminary tool for anthropogenic
heavy metals’ (HMs) pollution assessment is proved and supported by many
published studies. However, the extent to which this method is effective in an area
of complex setting and the way that magnetic signals will be affected are still not
well-known. This study aims for HMs pollution assessment in Abu Zaabal area
and its vicinities, to understand how the natural geogenic input and interfering
land-use affect the magnetic signals, and the viability of magnetic proxy tool to
detect and assess HMs pollution in such complex areas. The study area is located
south-east Nile Delta that was partly flooded before the High Dam construction
where agricultural, residential (urbanized and reclaimed lands), and various
industrial activities are interfering. It is one of the most polluted areas in the Nile
Delta. Its location encouraged a spatial grain size gradation, which was supported
by grain size analysis, from fine (silt and clay) in the north and west to coarser
sand in the east and south. Field work (in-situ magnetic measurements and
sampling), land-use mapping, grain size analysis, magnetic measurements and
other calculated parameters (χ, χfd%, κT, XARM, and S-ratio), magnetic and
geochemical mapping, risk assessment indices calculations (CF, EF, Igeo, and
PLI), and statistical analysis were conducted to achieve this purpose.
A total of 72 surface soil samples were collected to represent the different soil
types and land-uses. In addition, 18 sites were selected for core and/or subsurface
sampling. On the other hand, both in-situ bulk magnetic susceptibility (κ),
measured at 170 sites, and mass specific susceptibilities (χ) show a distribution
that corresponds to lithology where they were high in silty and clayey soil in the
north and west and low in the other sandy parts. However, strong signals are
recorded in sandy areas in the middle, and SE around the main industrial sites; the
old steel factory, lead factory, and Akrasha area. Besides, the vertical profiles of
χ along with frequency dependent susceptibility (χfd%) in these areas show the
ideal distribution of industrial fly-ash. The thermomagnetic runs (κT) revealed
that magnetite and titanomagnetite are the dominating magnetic phases that
controls the magnetic signal in most of samples. The S ratio-300mT with mean
value 0.92 (surface soil samples), indicates a substantial portion of hematite or
goethite while S ratio-100mT with mean value of 0.72 indicates that not all the
present magnetite is soft (MD)but it is of mixed origin of anthropogenic and
natural sources.