Mineralogical sedimantological and geophysical investigation of izmir bay

The Gulf of Izmir is one of the great natural and polluted bays of the eastern Aegean Sea and is a depositional environment of fine-grained sediment. The petrographic, geochemical and geophysical properties of the Izmir Gulf recent sediments were investigated. Izmir Gulf the levels of heavy metals were determined in surface and core sediments sampled in 2009 from the Izmir Bay. The concentrations of thirty two elements were analyzed on eigteen surface and three core samples. Accordingly, surface sediments in inner Izmir Bay display significant enrichments in As, Cr, Cu, Co, P, V, Zn and Ti associated with notably high concentrations of total organic carbon. The zone of moderate enrichments in Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn south of the present-day mouth of Gediz River suggests that discharge from this river is one of the major sources of anthropogenic input into the Outer Izmir Bay and probably reflects the large quantities of industrial discharge into Gediz River along its course. Pre-industrial elemental concentrations were obtained using core samples and these values are evaluated for comparison of various contamination factors for the region. Using high resolution subbottom profiler data recorded from the area, the evaluations of sedimentary environment and particular relationship of core samples were established. The highest concentrations of As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn were found in the inner bay due to industrial activities. In contrast, maximum levels of Mn, Co, Fe and Al were observed in the outer bay, due to geochemical structure. Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, As, Cr and Co levels in the upper layer of core sediments were higher than the mean background values of bottom sediments. The enrichment of Cr, Mn, Pb, Zn, Cu and As in the bay seems to be driven by anthropogenic sources. It was found that the sediments in Izmir Inner Bay were generally polluted heavily with Cu, As, Ni, Cr, Pb and moderately with Zn according to the numerical Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQG) of the USEPA