Distributions of environmentally hazardous elements in the Tertiary oil shale deposits from NW Anatolia Turkey A statistical analysis

English (OpenAlex)

The environmentally hazardous element concentrations (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Pb, S, and Zn) and element–organic matter relations of the oil shale deposits in six different fields in NW Anatolia, Turkey, were investigated and the characteristics of fields were compared. The enrichment factor (EF) for most of the trace elements in the studied oil shales generally show enrichment patterns for all the fields. Only Cr, Hg, and Pb for oil shale samples from the Bahçecik field samples and Hg for oil shale samples from the Gölpazarı field samples are depleted. Arsenic in the Bahçecik field samples and Hg in the Himmetoğlu field samples are neither depleted nor enriched. The lowest and highest element enrichments in these fields are determined to be Hg and S, respectively. In general, all elements have high concentrations in the Beypazarı and Seyitömer fields and low concentrations in the Himmetoğlu, Bahçecik, and Gölpazarı (except for As) fields. A positive correlation at significance level of p ≤ 0.05 was observed for total organic carbon content with Cd in four of the fields, with Cu and S in two fields and with Cr, Mn, and Zn in only one field.