Environmental and Mineralogical Investigations of Soils along Catenary Sequences in the Major River Floodplains of Bangladesh

The study is designed with the following objectives: - To determine the concentrations and pollution levels of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr, Cu, Zn and Mo) in soils and river sediments and their distribution throughout the soil profile. - To investigate the different chemical forms of heavy metals in soil and to correlate the heavy metals movement to several chemical and mineralogical characteristics of soils. - To study the morphology and environmental settings of some soils along catenary sequences in the major river floodplains of Bangladesh. - To identify and estimate the minerals in the sand and silt fractions of the studied soils. - To study the quantitative clay mineralogical composition of the selected soils and to make an attempt to characterize the species of clay minerals in soils. - To make a comparison of the mineralogy of the Brahmaputra and the Ganges river floodplain soils. - To throw light on the genesis and transformation of clay minerals in the studied soils and to make inferences in soil development along the catenary sequence in the major river floodplains of Bangladesh.