Application of Binary Diagnostic Ratios of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons for Identification of Tsunami 2004 Backwash Sediments in Khao Lak, Thailand

Table 1

Diagnostic binary ratios of PAHs, together with average, standard deviation, minimum and maximum of PAH concentrations (ng g⁻¹ dry weight) in marine sediments collected at the study sites.

	Number of rings	Molecular formula	Molecular mass	Average (n =70)	Standard deviation	Minimum	Maximum	Percentage contribution
Phe	3	C14H10	178	15.77	6.19	4.33	37.17	22.71
An	3	C14H10	178	1.94	1.26	0.28	7.92	2.79
11H-B[a]F	4	C17H12	216	1.40	2.50	N.D.	12.82	2.02
11H-B[b]F	4	C17H12	216	0.82	1.31	N.D.	9.62	1.18
Fluo	4	C16H10	202	6.19	4.32	1.04	21.86	8.92
Pyr	4	C16H10	202	11.46	7.26	1.63	37.58	16.51
B[a]A	4	C18H12	228	0.69	0.86	0.13	4.84	0.99
Chry	4	C18H12	228	0.72	1.12	0.11	5.76	1.04
B[b]F	5	C20H12	252	2.10	3.28	0.05	16.06	3.02
B[k]F	5	C20H12	252	3.17	4.12	0.05	18.10	4.57
B[e]P	5	C20H12	252	2.93	4.33	0.05	20.55	4.22
B[a]P	5	C20H12	252	2.66	3.08	0.06	11.15	3.83
Ind	6	C22H12	276	3.30	5.21	0.04	22.32	4.75
D[a,h]A	5	C22H14	278	9.86	17.93	0.10	117.46	14.20
B[g,h,i]P	6	C22H12	276	6.42	7.90	0.15	48.02	9.25
∑PAH				69.43	70.67	12.58	278.10	100.00
Ind/(Ind + B[g,h,i]P)	Diesel: 0.35–0.70 [55]			0.34	0.87
B[a]A/Chry	Coal: 1.0–1.2 [53], gasoline: 0.28–1.2 [53, 55]			0.96	1.91
B[a]P/B[g,h,i]P	Coal: 0.9–6.6, vehicles: 0.3–0.78, oil burning: >2 [53]			0.41	0.7
Fluo/(Fluo + Pyr)	Coal: 0.53 [55], gasoline: 0.40 [56]			0.35	0.41
B[k]F/Ind	Diesel: 0.5 [60], wood combustion: 0.6 [60]			0.96	1.96
An/(Phe + An)	Petroleum: <0.1, combustion: >0.1 [28, 54]			0.11	0.11
B[a]P/∑PAH-5rings^∗				0.13	0.45

^∗∑PAH-_5rings is the sum of B[a]P, D[a,h]A, B[e]P, B[b]F, and B[k]F.