Geochemical proxy of some chemical elements in sediments of Kemaman River Estuary,Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract

The concentrations of heavy metals (Mn, Co, Cu and Cr) were determined in the surface sediments from Kemaman River estuary using Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The relationship of heavy metal content with sediment particles size was studied. The average concentration of heavy metals are 597.8 μg/g dry weight, 16.0 μg/g dry weigh, 48.8 μg/g dry weight and 100.4 μg/g dry weight for Mn, Co, Cu and Cr, respectively. All metals showed low Enrichment Factor (EF) values (EF<1) when compared with Al which indicates that the elements in the sediment originated predominantly from crustal material or terigenous in origin. This study shows that there is a positive correlation between the mean particle size and the studied elements.