화학공학소재연구정보센터
Energy Sources, Vol.18, No.7, 755-766, 1996
Relationships between sediment morphology and oil pollution along the Suez Canal beaches, Egypt
In this study, marine surface sediments are collected from nine locations along the Suez Canal in order to investigate the relationship between the morphology of sands in the studied beaches and pollution by oil. Basically, the studied samples were analyzed by three techniques: grain-size analysis, microscopic examination, and gas chromatographic (GC) analysis. This study concluded that ''medium sand'' is the major class represented in the studied marine sediments. Pollution in these sand grains increases in the irregular grains more so than in the more rounded grains. Also, deep surface points, pitting, and fissures are considered to be good sites to precipitate oil contamination. Also the presence of iron oxides may be taken as evidence for tanker ballast washings. The heavy fraction (zircon) shows more contamination than the light faction (quartz) in these samples. Finally, GC profiles have shown two types of samples: one typical of weathered or highly weathered crude oil patterns and the other for samples with very highly weathered profiles. The relationship obtained between morphology studies and both oil content and GC chromatogram profiles indicates that all of the studied locations are suffering from pollution of oil that is spilled while shipping petroleum through the Suez Canal.