ICP-MS Measurement of Trace and Rare Earth Elements in Beach Placer-Deposit Soils of Odisha, East Coast of India, to Estimate Natural Enhancement of Elements in the Environment

Nimelan Veerasamy; Sarata Kumar Sahoo; Rajamanickam Murugan; Sharayu Kasar; Kazumasa Inoue; Masahiro Fukushi; Thennaarassan Natarajan

doi:10.3390/molecules26247510

ICP-MS Measurement of Trace and Rare Earth Elements in Beach Placer-Deposit Soils of Odisha, East Coast of India, to Estimate Natural Enhancement of Elements in the Environment

Molecules. 2021 Dec 11;26(24):7510. doi: 10.3390/molecules26247510.

Authors

Nimelan Veerasamy^{1

2}, Sarata Kumar Sahoo¹, Rajamanickam Murugan¹, Sharayu Kasar¹, Kazumasa Inoue², Masahiro Fukushi², Thennaarassan Natarajan^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ National Institute of Radiological Sciences, National Institutes for Quantum Sciences and Technology (QST), 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8555, Japan.
² Department of Radiological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 7-2-10 Higashiogu, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo 116-8551, Japan.

Abstract

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been used to measure the concentration of trace and rare earth elements (REEs) in soils. Geochemical certified reference materials such as JLk-1, JB-1, and JB-3 were used for the validation of the analytical method. The measured values were in good agreement with the certified values for all the elements and were within 10% analytical error. Beach placer deposits of soils mainly from Odisha, on the east coast of India, have been selected to study selected trace and rare earth elements (REEs), to estimate enrichment factor (EF) and geoaccumulation index (I_geo) in the natural environment. Enrichment factor (EF) and geoaccumulation index (I_geo) results showed that Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, Y, Zr, Cd and U were significantly enriched, and Th was extremely enriched. The total content of REEs (ƩREEs) ranged from 101.3 to 12,911.3 µg g^-1, with an average 2431.1 µg g^-1 which was higher than the average crustal value of ΣREEs. A high concentration of Th and light REEs were strongly correlated, which confirmed soil enrichment with monazite minerals. High ratios of light REEs (LREEs)/heavy REEs (HREEs) with a strong negative Eu anomaly revealed a felsic origin. The comparison of the chondrite normalized REE patterns of soil with hinterland rocks such as granite, charnockite, khondalite and migmatite suggested that enhancement of trace and REEs are of natural origin.

Keywords: ICP-MS; enrichment factor; geoaccumulation index; rare earth elements; soils; trace elements.