Geochemical and foraminiferal analyses of the bottom sediments of Dammam coast, Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Geochemical and foraminiferal analyses of the bottom sediments of Dammam coast, Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia Khaled AlKahtany 1 & Mohamed Youssef 1,2 & Abdelbaset El-Sorogy 1,3
Received: 1 December 2014 / Accepted: 15 June 2015 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2015
Abstract Bottom sediment samples were collected from 17 locations of the Dammam coast, Dammam city, Saudi Arabia in April 2014. The concentrations of iron, chromium, manganese, nickel, zinc, cadmium, lead, and copper in the bottom sediments were measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The mean metal concentrations are Fe (372.4 μg/g), Mn (5.9 μg g−1), Zn (5.1 μg g−1), Cu (6.3 μg g−1), Pb (2.1 μg g−1), Ni (4.4 μg g−1), Cr (6.5 μg g−1), and Cd (0.1 μg g−1). The distribution of benthic foraminifera in the collected samples was investigated. Twentynine species of 12 genera under nine families and three suborders were recorded. The most common genera are Peneroplis and Quinqueloculina which attain 39 and 38 % of the recorded fauna, respectively. The other common genera which were recorded in the study area are as follows: Ammonia (9 %), Spiroloculina (6 %), Triloculina (5 %), Sorites (1.1 %), and Textularaia (1 %). The other genera that have been recorded represent minor constituents. Some species exhibit abnormal
* Mohamed Youssef [email protected] 1
Department of Geology and Geophysics, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt
3
Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt
test morphologies that may indicate environmental stress. Keywords Benthic foraminifera . Heavy metals . Dammam coast . Saudi Arabia
Introduction The Arabian Gulf is a shallow subtropical epicontinental sea. It is nearly closed and is about 1000 km long and 200–300 km wide covering an area of about 226, 000 km2 (Abou-Ouf 1981). The average depth of the Arabian Gulf is only 35 m. The Arabian Gulf is characterized by the abnormal salinity, the surface salinities in the central parts of the Gulf is in average of 37– 40 ‰; while the shallow parts on the Arabian side is at range of 40–50 ‰. The Saudi Arabian coastline of the Arabian Gulf extends for about 450 km. The coastline has an extensive system of bays and lagoons such as Tarut Bay. The sediments are dominantly carbonates and evaporites in the shallow waters off the Arabian coast. Recent benthic foraminifera in the Arabian Gulf bottom sediments have attracted the attention of many workers since the first attempt of Fichtel and Moll (1798). This foraminiferal content have attracted more attention in the last 50 years (e.g., Henson 1950; Houbolt 1957; Murray 1970a, b, 1973; Anber 1974; Haake 1975; Abou-Ouf 1981; Darmoian and AlRubaee 1989; Elewi and Safawe 1989; Farahani 1998; Al Hitmi 2000; Issa et al. 2009; Mooraki et al. 2012). The type of bottom sediments can play a fundamental role in the distribution of metal concentrations in marine environments.
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