X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) investigation of soil sample from 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami affected region in Aceh of Indonesia

Investigation of affected soils by the massive Indian Ocean tsunami 2004 in Banda Aceh city was carried out utilizing X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) technique for analyzing and identifying its chemical component. Based on this preliminary study, the XRF investigation demonstrated that the affected soil samples in Banda Aceh city 10 years after the tsunami disaster were still contaminated by alkali metal elements identified as salt content (Ca and K) and transition metal elements involving Al, Si, P, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Sr. On the other hand, this research also revealed that Fe element dominantly appeared in the tsunami-affected soils in more than 35% of collected samples, then it followed by Si and Ca elements. It could be noticed that almost all of the chemical elements that appeared in the soil 10 years after the tsunami event were higher than the similar experiment held 1.5 and 3 years after the Indian Ocean tsunami 2004 in Aceh province. This work found that the concentration ratio of Fe/Ti and Si/Ti is far higher than other elements, thus the ratio is potential chemical signature to characterize the soil samples impacted by 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Banda Aceh city.