Statistical Assessment of Heavy Metal Distribution and Contamination of Beach Sands of Antalya-Turkey: an Approach to the Multivariate Analysis Techniques

The distribution of heavy metal concentrations in the beach sand samples collected from 44 different locations along the Manavgat Alanya coastline of Antalya covering different coastal sandy beaches was studied. The average concentration level of these metals in the beach sand was calculated and compared to those of the Earth Crust, Sandstone, Ultrabasic Rock and the acceptable limit for Turkey in order to determine their anomalies. Heavy metal (Cr, Zn, Ni, As, Cu, Pb, Co, Mo, Sb and Cd; along with Al, Fe, Mg, Mn, Na, K, Ba, Ca and W) were determined. The elements occurred in abundance as Ca > Na > Mg > Fe > Al > K > Ti > Mn > Cr > Ba > V > Zn > Ni > As > Cu > Pb > Co > Mo > Sb > W > Cd. The sufficiency of the number of samples used from the study area is revealed by the high explanatory power R-2 = 96.9 % of the ANOVA Model. Using the box plot, it was also noted that some heavy metals such as As (in samples 1, 19, 25, 28 and 29); Mn (in Samples 23 and 39); Na (in samples 23, 24 and 45); Cr (in Sample 33) and Ti (in Sample 15) had very high anomalies. Heavy metal contents show high anomaly concentrations when compared to some background values (Earth Crust, Sandstone, Ultrabasic and Turkey acceptable limit).