Abstract: The distributing properties of vertical resistivity and susceptibility of soils around an iron and steel plant have been obtained for pollution assessment using DC depth sounding, environmental magnetism and mineralogy. The study shows that soil resistivity values decrease gradually, while susceptibility and heavy metal content increase from the bottom to the surface of the contaminated soils, indicating a correspondence between the degree of soil pollution and the crude steel output each year and the vehicle numbers of Wuhan City. Through the analyses on hysteresis loop, thermal magnetic curve, and SEM/EDX mineralogy for the contaminated samples, the mineral components of polluted samples are predominantly magnetite and hematite, existing in pseudo-single domain (PSD), obviously different from the magnetic grain formed during pedogenic process in aspect of feature and ingredient. Because the electric and magnetic properties of soil have good indication to pollution degree, the study of soil electric and magnetic properties can be used to assess soil pollution, and the combined use of these two properties can also greatly improve the resolution of soil pollution assessment.

Key words: steel plant, contaminated soil, electric property, magnetic property, heavy metal, environmental significance