ORIGINAL ARTICLE Status of sedimentation in King Talal Dam, case study from Jordan Nazem El-Radaideh 1 • Ahmed A. Al-Taani 1 • Wesam M. Al Khateeb 2 Received: 2 March 2016 / Accepted: 17 January 2017 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 Abstract This paper focuses on characterizing the current status of physical and chemical characteristics of King Talal Dam (KTD) sediments. The quality of sediments was investigated based on several international sediment qual- ity guidelines. The volume of sediment and sedimentation rate in (KTD) was also estimated. Five types of granulo- metric textural facies were observed for the sediments of KTD reservoir bed, with an average grain size distribution of gravel (1.38%), sand (32.38%), silt (32.35%) and clay (32.38%). The fraction of \ 63 micron showed that the total mean size was 8.0 micron. Other sediment parameters in KTD were 7.0% for total organic matter (TOM), 7.3 for pH, 35.9% for CaCO 3 and 100.5 meq/100 g for cation exchange capacity, with dominant mineralogical con- stituents of quartz, calcite, dolomite, clay minerals and minor feldspar. The total concentrations of F, Cl, NO 2 , NO 3 , PO 4 and SO 4 in sediment samples were lower inward for KTD. The vast majority of trace metals in sediments were generally within the standard limits recommended for soils. TOM and grain size of sediment are major factors governing the trace metal concentrations. The calculated geoaccumulation index (I geo ) and enrichment factor of metals in bottom sediments showed that the metals were in the following order: Cd [ Pb [ Zn [ Co [ Cr [ Ni [ Fe [ Cu [ Sr [ Mn and Cd [ Zn [ Pb [ Co [ Cr [ Ni [ Cu [ Sr [ Mn, respectively. Based on the sonic survey of KTD reservoir, the annual sedimentation rate was about 0.4061 MCM/year, in which about 18.66% of the reservoir initial storage capacity was lost to sedi- ments and a projected lifespan of about 198 years. Keywords Textural facies Á Metals Á Sediment quality Á King Talal Dam Á Jordan Introduction King Talal dam (KTD) (Fig. 1a) is an earth-fill dam that was constructed in the period from 1977 to 1978. The total storage capacity of the dam is 88.5 million cubic meters (MCM) with a dead storage of about 8 MCM (live storage capacity is 80.5 MCM). The reservoirs lake is about 7.6 km long with a maximum width of 450 m. KTD catchment is about 33.75 km 2 . The dam lies within the Zarqa River basin and was designed for irrigation and electricity generation. Significant industrial activities of Jordan are located near the Zarqa River, and their wastewaters are frequently discharged (either accidentally or intentionally) into the river with higher contents of heavy metals and toxic sub- stances (Hashwa 1985; Ghrefat et al. 2012). Wadi Rmemeen drainage (Fig. 1a) containing wastewater from Baqa’a treatments plant and spring waters represents the second important source of water discharged into the dam (RSS 2005). The water quality of KTD has been adversely affected by discharge of effluent of Khirbet As-Samra and other industrial wastewater, containing relatively high concentrations of heavy metals, phosphorus and ammonia, into the dam through Zarqa River (Al-Jassabi and Khalil Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12665-017-6426-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Nazem El-Radaideh nazemelradaideh@yahoo.com 1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Yarmouk University, Irbid 21163, Jordan 2 Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Yarmouk University, Irbid 21163, Jordan 123 Environ Earth Sci (2017)76:132 DOI 10.1007/s12665-017-6426-y