Follow-up geochemical studies and mineralogical investigations by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) of soil samples from the industrial zone of Sisak, Croatia

Morphologies and chemical composition of metal-bearing particles in the heavy mineral fraction of three selected soil samples were studied using SEM/EDS. According to the results of the SEM/EDS analysis, the sources of studied elements could be ascribed predominantly to anthropogenic input from steelworks, recycling of steel scrap, ferroalloys production and to a lesser extent to the pedological processes in the soil and parent material. It is concluded that the SEM/EDS results provide significant information about the sources and apportionment of anthropogenic induced contamination in soil, and assist in the interpretation of conventional analytical results.