Distribution and source appointment of rare earth elements in offshore sediments of Western Xiamen Bay, Southeast China

Abstract

Abstract The REEs concentrations in offshore sediments (surface sediments and core sediments) of Western Xiamen Bay and some potential sources (parent materials, Pb-Zn deposit, vehicle exhaust, atmospheric dust, ship paint, coal combustion and domestic sewage sludge) were determined to investigate the geochemical characteristics and major sources of REEs in the sediments of Western Xiamen Bay. The results showed that the mean concentrations of REEs in surface sediments and core sediments were 245.9\u202fmg·kg−1 and 220.0\u202fmg·kg−1, respectively, which were close to the background value of topsoil in Xiamen City. There were negative Eu anomaly and no Ce anomaly in general and LREEs had a significant enrichment relative to HREEs. The results of enrichment factor showed that REEs were slightly enriched in surface sediments. The patterns of chondrite-normalized REE exhibited a negative slope, indicating that the REEs in surface sediments were mainly from the continental crust. Parameters and normalized patterns of REEs suggested that the sediments in Western Xiamen Bay were mainly from terrestrial sources and also affected by anthropogenic activities such as domestic sewage sludge and coal combustion. The results of Pearson s correlations, chondrite-normalized REEs distribution patterns and ternary plot of (La/Yb)N-(La/Sm)N-(Gd/Yb)N for the surface sediments and some potential sources indicated that the REEs accumulated in the surface sediments might be related to natural sources (parent materials and Pb-Zn deposit) and anthropogenic activities (coal combustion and domestic sewage sludge).