Magnetic Susceptibility as Proxy for Heavy Metal Pollution Detection in Sediment

The measurement of magnetic susceptibility is a simple and rapid method that provides a reliable idea of the degree of heavy metal contamination in sediments. In the present work, the concentration of heavy metals such as Mg, K, Ca, Ni, As Ba, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Zn, La, Pb, Ti, Al and Fe was determined by EDXRF technique in sediments collected from Poombuhar to Karaikal of Tamilnadu coast. The results show that aluminum (Al) is the most abundant metal in the sediments. In order to identify the source of metals in sediments, the magnetic susceptibility measurements were carried at both low (0.465 kHz) and high (4.65 kHz) frequencies using MS2B dual-frequency susceptibility meter and statistical methods such as correlations, factor and cluster analysis were applied between the heavy metals and magnetic parameters in sediments. These results show that high magnetic susceptibility value was found in locations Ammantherumedu-I, Ammantherumedu-II, Karaikal-II, and Karaikal-III in the study area. Finally, for better understanding of worldwide researchers, the spatial distribution of magnetic susceptibility in sediments is studied by contour maps.