Magnetic Pollution of Soil Samples at Some Industrial Sites in Jos Metropolis, Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

Magnetic susceptibility of polluted material can give a general view of the degree of heavy metal pollution, prior to a more expensive and time- consuming chemical analyses. In this study, magnetic susceptibility measurements of 40 soil samples collected from some industrial sites of Jos  Metropolis, were made using MS2G Sensor connected to Bartington MS 2 susceptibility meter. Volume magnetic susceptibility values ranged from  0.00026 x 10-5 SI to 0.0650 x 10-5 SI while low frequency mass specific susceptibility values ranged from 0.1181 x 10-6 m3kg-1 to 20.3 x 10- 6 m3kg-1. In both cases least and highest values are recorded at Zuma Steel and Dilimi respectively. Comparing low frequency mass specific susceptibility  values obtained from industrial sites to that obtained from non-industrial sites, it was observed that samples 11 and 12 from JIB and all samples collected from Dilimi recorded values higher than the  background soil samples thus indicating magnetic enhancement of soil at these locations by anthropogenic sources. The relationship between the volume magnetic susceptibility and mass specific susceptibility showed correlation of 0.983 implying that volume magnetic susceptibility results can be accepted in the absence of low frequency mass specific susceptibility measurement to assess magnetic pollution. The study also revealed that the magnetic behaviour of the dried soil samples collected from the industrial sites are controlled by concentration of ferrimagnetic minerals. Keywords: Magnetic, Pollution, Ferrimagnetic, Susceptibility, Anthropogenic, Dilimi