⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and major ion composition of rainwater of Ahmedabad, India: sources of base cations

Abstract

Rainwater samples from Ahmedabad, an urban site in India are analysed for their chemical composition and Sr isotopic ratio. Dominance of Ca in the cation budget indicates its importance in the acid neutralization whereas SO₄ and NO₃ dominate the anion budget. The major ion concentrations measured in this study are on the lower side of the range reported in the previous study (Rastogi and Sarin, 2007) from the same site. Na and Cl show very good correlation with ratio similar to the seawater ratio, implying their marine origin. Na concentration in these samples has been used as a proxy to calculate the non sea salt fraction of other major ions. Non sea salt Ca and Mg vary from 99.0% to 99.6% and 24.6% to 89.1% of the measured Ca and Mg respectively whereas non sea salt component of SO₄ and HCO₃ contribute 84.3% to 98.9% and 99.1% to 99.9% respectively. Sr concentrations in these rainwaters vary from 32 to 191 nM and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ranges from 0.70878 to 0.71027. Sr concentration shows a very good correlation (coefficient 0.93) with the non-sea salt component of Ca and Mg indicating their continental sources and having similar provenances. Carbonates and basalts seem to contribute significantly to dissolved base cations of the rainwaters. The basalts from Deccan region, which is isotopically indistinguishable from the African basalts and the silicate and carbonates from African region along with the sediments from the Ganga plain (which is originated from the Himalayan lithologies) could be potential dust sources for this particular site. The sources of dissolved base cations deduced from Sr isotope composition of the rainwaters are consistent with wind back trajectory data obtained from NOAA HYSPLIT model.