Sedimentological and heavy metal studies of the gulf of Thailand, East Coast Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak continental shelf sediments

Abstract

Two hundred and sixty sediment samples were collected from four cruises of the MV SEAFDEC (September, 1995 and April, 1996) from the continental shelf areas of the Gulf of Thailand and East Coast Peninsular Malaysia and in April and September, 1997 off Sabah and Sarawak. The samplings were carried before and after the Northeast monsoon to investigate its effects on sediment characteristics and heavy metals distribution. The sediments were analyzed for their sedimentological characteristics (mean size, sorting, skewness and kurtosis), using dry sieving and laser diffraction techniques; mineralogy, using petrographic microscope and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and heavy metals, using an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer.