Environmental geochemistry of soils and waters of Susaki area, Korinthos, Greece

Soil and water samples were collected from the Susaki area of Korinthos and analysed for heavy metals in order to evaluate their environmental impact. The geology of the studied area includes ultrabasic rocks and Neogene and Quaternary deposits whereas magnesite veins are found within the ultrabasic rocks. In the north part of the studied area post volcanic emissions of H2 S, CO2 and H2O vapor continue to the present day. All the samples were anal ysed for heavy metals by the ICP method. The element ranges (in mug g(-1)) for soil samples are: Cu 11-63, Pb 5-256, Zn 21-604, Ni 183-2665, Co 12-124 , Mn 456-1434, As 5-104, Sr 44-730, V 21-84, Cr 163-2346, Ba 48-218, Zr 3-4 1, Y 3-13. The metals Pb, Zn, Ni, Co, Cr, Fe, Cu, Mn, As and Sr are enriche d in the Susaki soils. The element ranges for water samples are: Cu 65-103 mug L-1, Pb < 10 <mu>g L-1, Zn < 5 <mu>g L-1, Ni 21-163 mug L-1, Co 2-12 mu g L-1, As < 30 <mu>g L-1, Cr < 20 <mu>g L-1, Ba 36-785 mug L-1, Sb < 10 <mu >g L-1, W < 10 <mu>g L-1, Bi < 30 <mu>g L-1, Mn 0.0-0.9 mug g(-1), Fe 0.01- 0.22 mug g(-1), Na 843-3076 mug g(-1), K 98-278 mug g(-1), Si 39-65 mug g(- 1), P 0.1-0.2 mug g(-1). There is a natural pollution of soils with elevate d concentrations of Ni, Co, Mn, Fe and Cr due to the presence of ultrabasic rocks. Another natural case of As pollution of soils is due to the volcani c activity and the geothermal field in the area. The geochemical data of gr ound waters and also the delta (18), deltaD data showed a mixing in differe nt proportions between sea water and meteoric water.