Investigation of Heavy metals contamination and their origin in soil region JafarAbad, southwest of Kashmar, Khorasan Razavi province

This study was conducted to investigate the heavy metal contamination and their region in Jafar Abad, southwest of Kashmar in Khorasan Razavi province. For this purpose, heavy metals of surface soil samples 32 (10- 30 cm) were analyzed in the Jafar Abad, southwest Kashmar by ICP-MS origin indices and degree of contamination including enrichment factor (Ef) and its percentage, geoaccumulation index (Igeo), contamination factor (Cf) were calculated to evaluate soil contamination. Based on the results, in between heavy metals, Manganes has the highest and Cadmium the lowest average contamination. Maximum and minimum enrichment factors are also Molybdenum and lead respectively. The results show that the study area is almost contaminated with respect to copper and molybdenum metals. The results of this study indicate that heavy metals contamination is lithogenic and mainly due to the lithology of the region such as shale, sandstone, conglomerate, gypsum marls, granite and volcanic rocks, and anthropogenic contaminants, except from limited mining activities and some agricultural activities did not play a significant role in the contamination of this region. Based on cluster analysis and principal component analysis, the presence of some metal such as copper, molybdenum and manganese together indicates their common origin.