GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SURFACE SEDIMENTS FROM THE SEA AREAS OF PEARL RIVER ESTUARY AND SOUTH YELLOW SEA

Based on ten sediment samples collected in the sea areas of Pearl River Estuary and South Yellow Sea,the authors analyzed 67 elements to study geochemical characteristics. The patterns of element abundances and their distributions have been investigated in this paper. The results show that sediments in the coastal sea area mainly originate from terrestrial source and,except for Ca and Sr, the distributions of major elements possess the characteristics of terrestrial materials. A comparison between Pearl River estuary and South Yellow Sea shows that the former is rich in As,Cd,Hg,Sb,Sr,Ca,Rb and C,whereas the latter is rich in Al 2 O 3,Zr,Hf, Sc,Rb,Ga,Cs,V,Co,Cr,Cu,Mn,Ni,K 2 O,Na 2 O,B,Ba and I. A comparison with the element abundances of China's shelf sea shows that the enrichment and dispersion regularities of elements in the surface sediments of the two study areas are different.