Soliman, M. M.; I. A. Hegab; Salwa S. El- Sayied and Shimaa A. M. Amer( 2018). Geochemical and Radiometric studies on the Soils of Wadi Nugrus, South
Eastern Desert, Egypt
J.Soil Sci. and Agric. Eng., Mansoura Univ., Vol. 9(1): 1- 9, 2018
Abstract: The present work is mainly aimed at evaluating the geochemical properties beside the potential effect of some radioactive sources on the agricultural environment of Wadi Nugrus. The studied area is located at the southern part of the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Eleven soil Profiles were selected to represent Wadi Nugrus plain, The profiles were described morphologically in the field and soil physical, chemical and geochemical properties were evaluated. New results are also obtained in this study about the trace and major elements and the soil radioactivity. The obtained results indicate the following.1- Physical and chemical properties:Soil texture class of Wadi Nugrus area is mostly sand and loamy sand or sandy loom; Ca CO3 content ranges from 2.5 to 5.8%; organic matter content is very low due to the desertic conditions. pH values range from 7.49 to 8.81 indicating that this soils are slight to moderately alkaline. ECe values varied from 0.33 to 6.29 dsm-1 indicate that the soils differ from non to slightly saline. Soluble cations are dominated by Na+ followed by Ca+ +, Mg+ + and K+, while soluble anions followed this order SO= 4 >Cl- >HCO-33H{ 1- Geochemical Properties: The chemical composition of the major oxides distribution in the studied soils reveal that SiO2 is the dominant oxides, this concides with the nature of parent material Al2O3, Fe2O3 and sometimes CaO and MgO come after in abundances, followed by Na2O and K2O, while TiO2 and P2O5 constitutes are less pronounced. Trace elements were also determined and show that most of the determined elements (Cr, Cu, Zn, Rb, Y, pb and Nb) are over the permissible limits obtained by different organization (FAO, UNESCO 1974), except for Ni, Zr, Ba, Sr, Ga and V which were in the range of published data by FAO and UNESCO (1974).The radiometric study carried out on the studied soil samples reveals that the studied soils are in enrichment of radioactive elements (uranium and thorium) the high contents of radioactive elements in the studied soils may be related to the leaching process of uranium from the parent country rocks beside adsorption of uranium on surface of ferruginous materials and / or on also clay surface.
Keywords: (Geochemical, Radiometric, Trace elements, Does rate, Eastern Desert .)
