Doina - Smaranda SȊRBU-RĂDĂȘANU¹ & Nicolae BUZGAR^2
1“Al.I.Cuza” University of Iasi, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Department of Research, 20A Carol I Boulevard, 700505 Romania; sradasanu@yahoo.com; nicolae.buzgar@uaic.ro

THE GEOCHEMISTRY OF MAJOR AND SELECTED TRACE ELEMENTS IN SOIL FROM NORTHERN AREA OF IAȘI CITY (ROMANIA)

Full text

The major and selected trace elements of soil and parent material were used for the assessing of main geochemical features along soil profile and within soil layers. The composition of different soil layers relatively change comparing with parent material. The loss of major oxides during soil developments is low for Si, Al, Fe and K, while the gain depends on their ability to form new compounds as the mass transfer method infers. The high losses of Ca, Na and Mg are responsible for the main mineralogical changes. The loss or gain of trace elements are firstly related to Fe and Al behaviour under soil forming conditions and secondly to Mn and organic material enrichment trend. The high carbonate amount of parent material and its dissolution over the long term could maintain almost neutral pH condition which promotes a low mobility of certain major and trace elements. The major elements distributions and correlations along soil profile and within sampled layer support the predominance of clay fraction which consists of illite, smectite, chlorite or vermiculate, and their percent in soil layers change upward.