Distribution of heavy metals in the topsoil of the Jining mining area

The geochemical baseline is the fundamental reference for environmental change and assessment. In this article we describe cluster and regression analyses with a normalization procedure. The elements Sc and Ag were chosen to calculate the environmental geochemical baseline. The geoaccumulation index was calculated and mapped to indicate the environmental quality of the soil. The results show that the urban areas are barely polluted with Ni and Cr but the rural areas in the southern part of the city, and the western part of the lake, are polluted with Ni, Cr, and Cu at the second level. On the other hand, the rural areas in the southern part of the city, and the western part of the lake, are polluted with As at a moderate level. The other area is polluted at the second level. An increase in As pollution occurs in a direction from northeast to southwest. The Cd pollution follows a trend similar to As, with an additional smaller contaminated area polluted at level III. The Hg pollution typical of urban areas occurs in the main and northern parts of the city. The geochemical accumulation index decreases from the city center to the periphery. The highest pollution level reaches level IV, which indicates that the soil is seriously polluted with Hg. The southern part of the city and the rural areas to the west of the lake are not contaminated with Hg. Geological factors and the disturbance from human activities are both possible major factors: further research is needed to identify them.