The pollution of continental shelf sea sediments has always been an important issue for scientists because it can directly affect marine life and marine ecology. Thus, we carried out detailed studies of environmental magnetism and heavy metals in 145 surface sediment samples from the area southeast of the Zhoushan Islands in the East China Sea. The magnetic minerals in the sediments are mainly magnetite with a small amount of goethite and hematite. The magnetic mineral particles are mainly pseudosingle domain and contain a certain amount of superparamagnetic particles. The distribution of the magnetic mineral content shows a gradual decreasing trend from land to sea, which is closely related to the sediment transport pattern. The anhysteretic remanent magnetization (χARM) and χARM ratio to magnetic susceptibilities (χARM/χ) were more sensitive than other indexes to sediment pollution and could be used as indicators for environmental pollution in the nearshore area. Additionally, a correlation analysis with the major elements showed that the χARM ratio to saturation isothermal remanence (χARM/SIRM) can well explain the sources of terrigenous sediment. Therefore, the environmental magnetic parameters in the continental shelf area can be used as a precursor for geochemical research and provide data support for further research.
Keywords: Environmental magnetism; Heavy metal pollution; Surface sediments; Zhoushan islands.
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