Fetullah Arık 1 Tahsin Yaldız 2 1 Selcuk University, Engineering Architecture Faculty, Geological Engineering Department, Selc ¸uklu, Konya, Turkey 2 Emergency Service, State Hospital, Hospital St. Selcuklu, Konya, Turkey Research Article Heavy Metal Determination and Pollution of the Soil and Plants of Southeast Tavs ¸anlı (Ku ¨ tahya, Turkey) The investigation area is located to the east of Ku ¨tahya–Tavs ¸anlı and, covers an area about 150 km 2 . The units cropping out in the study area comprise of metamorphic, volcanic, and sedimentary rocks ranging from Upper Paleozoic to Quaternary. There are some polymetallic ore deposits represented by silver, zinc, lead, and antimony deposits and some enrichments related to them such as As, Cd, Tl, Cu, Mn, Ba, and Sr around the Aktepe at the southeast of the study area. In order to investigate the heavy metal contents and contamination in soil and plants, some leaves, branches, and fruits of trees (Salix, oak: Quercus sp., pine: Pinus sp., apple: Malus communis, walnut: Juglans regia, poplar: Populus sp., plane: Platanus orientalis, pear: Pyrus communis, oleaster: Elaeagnus angustifolia) and some herbaceous plants like prickle and meadow samples have been collected and subjected to geochemical analysis. Mean element concentrations of soil samples are 0.7 ppm Ag, 82.6 ppm Pb, 165.3 ppm Zn, and 8.5 ppm Sb. The concentration of As, Cd, Tl, Cu, Mn, Ba, and Sr are 203.3, 1.5, 1.7, 32.6, 1059.5, 718.4, and 289.6 ppm, respectively. With respect to plants the average heavy metal concentrations are 0.14 ppm Ag, 2.49 ppm Pb, 52.34 ppm Zn, and 1.05 ppm Sb and the average concen- tration of As, Cd, Tl, Cu, Mn, Ba, and Sr are 4.41, 0.64, 0.19, 6.54, 119.80, 39.46 versus 41.21 ppm, respectively. Element distributions of soil and plants depend on to the distance from the present Ag–Pb–Zn–Sb deposits. Element concentrations of plants differ depending on not only plant type like tree and herbaceous plants but also the types of samples such as leaves, branches, or fruits of trees. Especially leaves of trees and herbaceous plants have relatively higher element concentrations. Therefore, people who and animals which live in this area and benefit from these soil and plants have vital risks. Keywords: Contamination; Geochemistry; Polymetallic mineralization; Silver deposit; Vegetation Received: April 8, 2010; revised: July 14, 2010; accepted: July 27, 2010 DOI: 10.1002/clen.201000131 1 Introduction It is known that there is a great deal of heavy metal pollution in the rocks, soils, water, and plants around the metallic ore deposits depending on local ecosystems. In many countries, large-scale environmental pollution has been identified during the mining process and the production of metals, due to not only geologic, mineralogic, and metallurgical properties of the ore deposits, but also chemical usage in the metallurgical processes [1–23]. In Turkey there are many ore deposits which affect the proximal and distal environment negatively. Some of them have been inves- tigated as heavy metal potential, As, Pb, Zn, and Cd pollution in water and acid-mine drainage [24–26]. The study area is located west of Ku ¨tahya city and east of Tavs ¸anlı town in Ku ¨tahya (West Turkey) and covers about 150 km 2 . There are many settlements in the study area including Aliko ¨y in the west, Ko ¨pru ¨o ¨ren and S ¸ahin villages in the east, C ¸obanko ¨y in the north, and Ko ¨reken in the south. Ku ¨tahya–Tavs ¸anlı road and Ku ¨tahya– ˙ Izmir railways pass across the study area from east to west (Fig. 1). Palaeozoic to Holocene aged metamorphic, magmatic, volcanic, and sedimentary rocks cropped out in the study area (Fig. 1). The basement of the study area is Carboniferous and Permian S ¸ahin formation comprising low-grade metamorphic meta-detriticious rocks. The Permian–Triassic Karaag ˘ac ¸ formation is composed mainly of marbles and lies conformably on the S¸ahin formation. The Enne me ´lange, which is situated on the study area in the Upper Cretaceous, was placed tectonically on the other units. The Miocene Tavs ¸anlı volcanoes, starting with thin layered basement conglomerates and consisting of mainly rhyolitic and rhyodacitik tuffite, tuff, and agglomerates, overlies uncomformably the Pre- Cenozoic basement units. The Pliocene C ¸okko ¨y formation, represented by tuff, carbonate, and clayey rocks overlay Tavs ¸anlı volcanoes at the base and has been overlaid by the Emet formation, consisting of clayey limestone, limestone, and dolomitic limestone. The Late Pliocene–Quaternary basic Tas ¸lıtepe volcanoes cut all of the above-mentioned units. The Quaternary Bozyer formation and allu- vium overlie uncomformably the older units [27–30]. Correspondence: Dr. F. Arık, Selcuk University, Engineering Architecture Faculty, Geological Engineering Department, Selc ¸uklu, Konya 42080, Turkey E-mail: fetullah42@hotmail.com; farik@selcuk.edu.tr Clean – Soil, Air, Water 2010, 38 (11), 1017–1030 1017 ß 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.clean-journal.com