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Abstract The study aimed to evaluate the contamination of gypsiferous soil with heavy metals in the areas surrounding the Baiji oil refinery in Salah al-Din Governorate, Iraq. 56 soil samples were obtained from the surface layer of soil (0–20) cm, distributed randomly over the area of the study is 85.24 km 2 . Soil samples were prepared, and the total heavy metal content was estimated using an X-ray fluorescence device. The study included the estimation of 11 heavy elements (Ti, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, As, Mo, Pb, Zn, and Mn) and compared them with international standard and calculated the following pollution indicators: Contamination Factor (CF) and Geological Accumulation Index (Igeo) and the degree of contamination (CD), the Numero pollution index (PIn), the enrichment factor (EF), and the environmental potential risk index (PERI). The results of the study indicated that the contamination factor (CF) for all sites was highly polluted with nickel and molybdenum, high to significant with chromium, and moderate for the rest of the elements. As for Igeo, its results indicated that all sites were moderately to highly polluted with the elements molybdenum, nickel, and chromium and not polluted with the rest of the elements. While the CD results indicate that all sites were highly polluted, as the same is true for the rest of the indicators. We conclude from the above that all sites were highly polluted with the element’s chromium, nickel, and molybdenum. As for the elements (Ti, Fe, Co, Cu, As, Pb, Zn, and Mn), they varied in degree of contamination from severe to no contamination based on the standard used in the evaluation. As for the cadmium element, it did not appear in any of the measured samples.
Hayyood et al. (Mon,) studied this question.