MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF GROUNDWATER CHEMISTRY DATA FROM HADEJIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF JIGAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Author's Name: A. Garba, E.O. Ekanem, I.H. Garba & A. Mustapha
Subject Area: Science and Engineering
Subject Chemistry
Section Research Paper

Keyword:

Groundwater Chemistry, Hadejia, Cluster Analysis, Principal Component Analysis


Abstract

The multivariate statistical tools cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were simultaneously applied to groundwater hydrochemical data of Hadejia Local Government area Jigawa State, Nigeria to extract principal processes controlling water chemistry. The combined use of both techniques resulted in more reliable interpretations of the hydrochemistry. They revealed 2 processes responsible for water chemistry which is an anthropogenic activities and natural (mineralization and weathering of geological deposits). A total of 20 sampling points were selected for the study, the groundwater samples were collected in triplicate and analyzed for physicochemical and trace metals values. Test of significance of the observed correlation coefficients have been tested and shows high positive correlation between TDS and NO3-, as r = 0.835 ,TDS and Cu as r = 0.866, NO3-and Cu as r = 0.75, while marked/moderate positive correlations between Mg and Cl- as r = 0.585, Cl-and Cu as r = 0.550, TDS and Mn as r = 0.551, Mg and Mn as r = 0.557, Cu and Mn as r = 0.560 were observed, this suggest that the aquifer chemistry is mainly controlled TDS,Mg, NO3-, Cu, Cl-, and Mn which indicates the origin of major cations to be dissolution/precipitation processes (Kwatiwada et al., 2002), these strong positive correlations are an indication of common source. Cluster analysis results grouped the 20 sampling points into five statistically significant clusters based on their similarities. PCA was used to investigate the origin of each water quality parameters and yielded five Varimax factors/components with 75.28% total variance, indicating the major variations are related to anthropogenic activities and natural processes.

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