Two synchrotron radiation X-ray analyses, i.e., a high-energy synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence analysis and a synchrotron radiation X-ray powder diffraction analysis, were applied to analyze the heavy element and heavy mineral composition of 362 samples of stream sediments collected in the Kyushu region, Japan, to develop a nation-wide forensic soil sediment database for Japan. The visualization of heavy elements and the heavy mineral composition of stream sediments as distribution maps enables one to understand the behaviors of heavy elements and heavy minerals, as well as correlations with a geological background in the Kyushu region. We found characteristic behaviors of heavy elements in the Kyushu region that have not been found in other regions. To objectively classify the soils in the Kyushu region for the forensic provenance estimations, we successfully introduced a multiple classification analysis and a statistical analysis to characterize soil by their heavy element and heavy mineral compositions. As a result, we could classify the soils into 7 groups corresponding to their geological backgrounds.
