Geochemical evaluation of the Lagos lagoon sediments

Lagos lagoon is underlain by the Tertiary to recent coastal plain sands of the Dahomey Basin and receives a huge volume of sediments from surface runoffs, canals, rivers and other drainage networks. The dumping of domestic and industrial wastes into these drainage channels open up the possibility of deleterious materials, which carry with them toxic metallic ions, being discharged as wastes into the channels, these eventually find their ways into the lagoon. Sediments being sinks for metals, the identification and quantitative evaluation of metallic ions in the Lagos lagoon sediments is desirable. This study aimed at ascertaining the concentrations of these metallic ions in the sediments. One hundred samples of sediment were systematically obtained along the banks, drainage channels （waste discharge points）, shelves and the center of the lagoon. These samples were dried, disaggregated and sieved for grain size （granulometric） analysis to evaluate the transport and depositional mechanism; X-ray diffraction and heavy mineral separation were used to determine the mineralogy. The 〈75 μm sieved portions of the samples were digested using aqua regia at 96℃ for two hours. The resulting clear solutions were analyzed for major oxides and trace metals using the Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry （ICP-OES）. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed quartz as the preponderant mineral. The geochemical result revealed that SiO2 ranges from 78.57%-98.88%; TiO2, 0.01%-0.32%; A1203, 0.15%-6.32%; Fe2O3, 0.44%-11.62%; K2O, 0.10%-9.60%; CaO, 0.04%-5.50%; MgO, 0.04%-0.98% and P2O5, 0.01%-0.30%, The major oxide compositions indicate the dominance of sand particles over clay in the sediments.

Geochemical evaluation of the Lagos lagoon sediments