Provenance and Heavy Metals Concentrations in the Bedrocks and Sediments of Okemesi/Ijero District, Southwestern Nigeria
Ayodele O.S, Adebisi N.O and Akintola A.I
Research Paper I Published September,2015
Journal of Physical Science and Environmental Studies Vol. 1 (3), pp. 29-46
ABSTRACT
An assessment
was conducted on the bedrocks and sediments of Okemesi/Ijero
area using geochemical approach in order to establish the
concentration of heavy metals; determine the level of
enrichment and develop their geo-accumulation index. Field
studies of the bedrocks were carried out, and provenance of
the sediments was determined. Thirty-five bedrocks and
sediment samples were collected for this study in a
grid-controlled sampling method. The samples were dissolved
using Lithium Tetraborate fusion method followed by HCl and
HF acid digestion. Field studies revealed that the sediments
were derived from the weathering of the bedrocks such as
quartz-biotite-schists, banded gneisses, granite gneisses,
biotite gneisses, calc gneisses, porphyritic granites,
charnockites, massive/schistose quartzites and mica schists
which are the dominant lithologic units in the study area
while intermediate rock is attributed as the probable source
of sediments. The concentration of Cu, Pb, Zn and Ti were
found to be higher in both bedrocks and sediments more than
the background. Positive correlation occurred between Pb, Cu
and Zn indicating a common lithogenic source in the
sediments and bedrocks but Fe and Ti were discovered to be
anthropogenically and extremely enriched in the sediments.
The enrichment factors of the heavy metals showed moderate
to significant enrichment (EF- 5-20) for Pb (28.95%), Cu
(73.68) and Zn (2.63%) in bedrocks and Cu (45.7%), Pb
(82.86%) and Nb (54.29%) in sediments. However, gold
mineralization potentials in the study area is very high
based on moderate to significant enrichment of its
pathfinder elements in the bedrocks and sediments of the
studied areas.
Key words: Bedrocks, Sediments, Heavy metals, Geo
accumulation index (Igeo), Enrichment factor (EF).
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