Major and trace elements’ concentration in recent clastic sediments from part of the eastern coast of India: an assessment of metal pollution

Heavy metal pollution is one of the serious problems resulting from the rapid increase in human activities that can accumulate to reach critical levels threatening food sources for humans and other living organisms. Therefore, the concentrations of major and trace elements in recent clastic sediments from the coastal area between the Sarada River mouth and the Gosthani River mouth, east coast of India were analyzed using XRF and ICP-MS techniques to identify the natural and anthropogenic sources of these elements. The results showed that silicate concentrations range between 53.25 wt.% and 82.36 wt.%, where the concentrations decrease from south to north along the beach; whereas the concentrations of iron, aluminium, and titanium increase in the same direction, consistent with the increase in concentrations of heavy minerals. The depletion/enrichment values showed that Ti, Fe, and Mn were enriched in the sediments from the study area in comparison to other major elements. The elevated values of contamination factor of the toxic trace elements are closely related to human activities in the surrounding areas, where the high concentrations of toxic elements, such as cadmium (CF = 173.2), zinc (74.36), lead (32.05), copper (26.44), and cobalt (25.75), have been observed in the area near Visakhapatnam port which are associated with port operations, industrial waste, and sewage. The factorial analysis method partly succeeded in linking the trace elements of the same source, as it was possible to identify elements of natural origin from those of anthropogenic sources and track their sources.