Distribution and Chemical Behavior of 21 Elements in River Water in the Yakushima Island

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Abstract
The concentrations of 21 elements dissolved in the river water collected from around the Yakushima Island were determined by a neutron activation analysis (NAA). From the analytical results, the distribution and chemical behavior of each element in the water were discussed. The chemical composition of the river water was nearly uniform all around the island, and the concentration of each element determined in this work was extremely close to the geochemical background value of river water, since our experimental area had scarcely any pollution. Among the 21 elements chlorine, sodium, and magnesium were mainly supplied into the river water from the ocean, while the others were chiefly driven from the rocks and their efflorescences in the drainage basin. The enrichment factors for the granitic earth crust (FE-value) were very close to 1 for calcium, strontium, and zinc, while those of selenium, arsenic, tungsten, and antimony were much higher than 1. For the elements such as aluminium, iron, manganese, etc., on the other hand, the FE-values were very low. These differences in the FE-values among the elements correspond to differences in their solubilities in the water.