Impact of geology and geomorphology on fluoride contaminated groundwater in hard rock terrain of India using geoinformatics approach

Abstract

The present study demonstrates a GIS-based spatial evaluation of fluoride contamination (FC) in groundwater vis-a-vis geology and geomorphology of the area using analytical hierarchy process and weighted sum method in Palamu district of Jharkhand. The integration and analyses of the various thematic databases along with the field sampled fluoride data proved useful in delineating the FC zones. The FC index ranged between 141 and 707, and was classified into four zones, viz., low, moderate, high, and very high zones of FC. The FC index map showed that a total of 49.75% of the study area lies between high to very high FC zone. The very high FC zone is found in the moderately weathered plateau with granitic terrain, whereas the high and moderately FC zones covering 49.31 and 36.41% of the study area are dominated by plateau weathered shallow, pediment-inselberg complex, pediplain moderately weathered, pediplain shallow weathered, and inselberg which have high fluoride. The lowest FC zone covers an area of 193.27 sq. km (13.84%). The spatial analysis of geology with fluoride showed that groundwater within granitic gneiss exhibits high FC followed by granitoid gneiss and alluvium. Geomorphologically highest FC was recorded in plateau weathered moderate (91.67%) followed by plateau weathered shallow (71.43%), flood plain (41.76%), inselberg (27.27%), and pediment (25%). The spatial analysis of groundwater yield with fluoride showed that regions having good yield exhibit maximum FC thereby accelerating the vulnerability of the population to fluorosis.

Geomedical Assessment of Areas Having Varying Groundwater Fluoride Levels in Rudraprayag District, Uttarakhand

“…Moreover, the presence of anion like chlorite further increases fluoride concentration in water as observed in Toneta. (15) Similar results were observed in studies in other parts of the world, a study in Iran (16) also signified that water-rock interaction and influence of clay minerals is a geochemical mechanism responsible for fluoride augmentation in groundwater. Other studies, in Ghana (17) , Pakistan and even in eastern parts of India (18) underlined that the high fluoride-prone areas were located in close vicinity of granitic rocks and as the distance increases fluoride level in water decrease.…”

“…It can be seen clearly from the map that the high prevalence of fluorosis among the population overlaps strongly with regions where the water fluoride concentrations were high and there was geological evidence of fluoride-rich rocks. Another study was done by Shekhar (15) in the Palau district of Jharkhand also signified the contribution of geo-medical maps for indication of the occurrence of fluorosis.…”

Assessment of Ground Water Potentiality by using GIS and AHP based Multi-criteria Decision Making: Case Study in Noamundi area, Jharkhand

“…The potential of groundwater anywhere is the result of reciprocity principles between hydrology, geology, biological factors, etc (Das, 2019).The natural recharge, accumulation, potentiality and ow of groundwater in an area is driven by a variety of geo-environmental factors such as lithology/geology, geomorphology, lineament features or density, soil, slope, drainage, rainfall, land use/land cover (LULC) (Al-Adamat et al, 2003;Kumaret al, 2016;Shekhar et al, 2017;Sa Costa, 2019;Javaid et al, 2020).The natural recharge of groundwater is in uenced by the interrelationship between these factors.…”

Fluoride in groundwater: a case study in Precambrian terranes of Ambaji region, North Gujarat, India

“…In different parts of China, Li et al (2014Li et al ( , 2017 found that the high F − was controlled by hydrogeological conditions, but also man-made activities and mixing of different recharge waters were also key reasons. High fluoride groundwater has been recorded as one of the most critical natural groundwater quality problems associated with hard rock areas in India (Handa, 1975;Reddy et al, 2010;Raj and Shaji, 2017;Shekhar et al, 2017). More than 200 million people from different nations suffer health problems due to high fluoride in groundwater (Ayoob and Gupta, 2006;Wu and Sun, 2016).…”