Investigation on Inorganic Pollution Level in Surface Se- diments of Naples and Salerno Bay

In this study, superficial marine sediments collected from 96 sampling sites were analyzed for 53 inorganic elements. Each sample was digested in aqua regia and analyzed by ICP-MS. A developed multifractal inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation method was applied for the compilation of interpolated maps for both single element and factor scores distributions. R-mode factor analysis has been performed on 23 of 53 analyzed elements. The 3 factor model, accounting 84.9 % of data variability, were chosen. The three elemental associations obtained have been very helpful to distinguish anthropogenic from geogenic contribution. The aim of this study is to distinguish distribution patterns of pollutants on the sea floor of Naples and Salerno bays. In general, local lithologies, water dynamic and anthropogenic activities determine the distribution of the analyzed elements. To estimate pollution level in the area, Italian guidance, Canadian sediment quality guidance and Long’s criteria are chosen to set the comparability. As the result shows, arsenic and lead may present highly adverse effect to living creatures