Spatial pollution characteristics and magnetic response of surface soil heavy metals in Jinchuan mining area

26surface soil samples were collected from the Jinchuan mine area. Environmental magnetism and heavy metal element (Cu, Ni, Cr, Fe, Sr, Ti, Pb and Mn) content analysis were related analysis on the samples, and carried out by using single factor pollution index and Nemero pollution index evaluation methods to evaluate the heavy metal pollution degree. The magnetic characteristics of the surface soil and the content of heavy metal elements showed obvious spatial distribution differences: mine area> outer processing area> high traffic section> gate area> other areas. The samples were contaminated up to100% by Cu and Ni, showing the high levels of pollution. While metal pollution of Cr, Pb, Ti, and Sr was between the warning line and moderate pollution. Then, the values of χl, SIRM, χARM and HIRM were relatively high, indicating that the content of magnetic mineral particles was extremely high, and the magnetic particles were dominated by ferrimagnetic mineral types. The magnetic grain size characteristics of the surface soil samples were dominated by coarser pseudo-monodomain (PSD) and multi-domain (MD) particles. Correlation analysis results were shown that there was an excellent correlation between Cu, Ni, Cr, Fe, Pb and Mn, especially, the correlation of Cu, Ni was excellent (R=0.91) among them. χlf, SIRM, and χARM had an excellent correlation with various metals(0.52≤R≤0.78), it showed that the heavy metal pollution of urban surface soil was effectively monitored by magnetic parameters, quickly delineating the area and scope of heavy metal pollution, and providing rapid and effective data support for urban surface soil pollution monitoring. © 2021, Editorial Board of China Environmental Science. All right reserved.