YU Rui-lian, HU Gong-ren, ZHENG Zhi-min
(Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China)

Abstract: The concentration and vertical distribution of heavy metals (Hg, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and Fe) in three sediment cores, collected from the intertidal flat of Luoyang River estuary in Quanzhou Bay, were analyzed by using ICP-MS. The sources of heavy metals were discussed combining with the methods of factor analysis, cluster analysis and the geochemical characteristics of heavy metals. The results show that the main pollutant elements are Cu, Zn, Cd and Hg in the columnar sediments, and the sources of these elements are mainly from human activities, while V, Mn, Co, Ni and Fe are mainly influenced by their geochemical background values with the main sources from nature processes. V and Fe are used as the reference elements to normalize the changing trend of target elements and to draw a standardization scatter plot chart on the basis of the normalized data. The results are in accordance with factor analysis and cluster analysis, indicating that this method is applicable to distinguish the human sources and natural sources of heavy metals in sediments.

Key words: sediment; heavy metal; source analysis; factor analysis; cluster analysis; normalization

E-mail: ruiliany@hqu.edu.cn

ACTA MINERALOGICA SINICA  Vol. 33, No. 1, 2013, Page 10-18