CHEMICAL BEHAVIOUR OF • SOME TRACE ELEMENTS IN I DESERT SOILS

Abstract

The current study is performed to clarify the behaviour of some trace elements, i .e., Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, 8 and Mo in some coastal areas. To achieve this objective, six representative soil profiles were chosen as follows:

a) Soil on lacustrine deposits located at the El-Tina (M ud-flat) North Sinai ;

b) Soil on calcareous deposits located at E I-AJ amein, El-Dabaa, Fouka, Ras El-Hekma and Wadi El-Ramla.

Detennination of some soil physical and chemical properties was canied out. Also, total and chemically extractable trace elements were determined, and the factors controllin g their behaviour in the concerned soils were '- evaluated.

Ion exchange experiments were perfonned on the silt and clay fractions separated from the soil deposits as well as pure clay minerals, kaolinite, montmorillonite and palygorskite as reference samples. Characterizations of these clay minerals before and after treatments were carried out by means of X-ray diffraction analysis. These experiments include;