New sediment provenance approach based on orthonormal log ratio transformation of geochemical and heavy mineral data: Sources of eolian sands from the southeastern Adriatic archipelago

AbstractThe field of provenance analysis has seen a revival in the last decade as quantitative data-acquisition techniques continue to develop. In the 20th century, many heavy-mineral data were collected. These data were mostly used as qualitative indications for stratigraphy and provenance, and not incorporated in a quantitative provenance methodology. Even today, such data are mostly only used in classic data tables or cumulative heavy-mineral plots as a qualitative indication of variation. The main obstacle to rigorous statistical analysis is the compositional nature of these data which makes them unfit for standard multivariate statistics. To gain more information from legacy data, a straightforward workflow for quantitative analysis of compositional datasets is provided. First (1) a centred log-ratio transformation of the data is carried out to fix the constant-sum constraint and non-negativity of the compositional data. Next, (2) cluster analysis is followed by (3) principal component analysis and (4) bivariate log-ratio plots. Several (5) proxies for the effects of sorting and weathering are included to check the provenance significance of observed variations and finally a (6) spatial interpolation of a provenance proxy extracted from the dataset can be carried out. To test this methodology, available heavy-mineral data from the southern edge of the Miocene North Sea Basin are analysed. The results are compared with available information from literature and are used to gain improved insight into Miocene sediment input variations in the study area.

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The Provenance of Middle Jurassic to Cretaceous sediments in the Irish and Celtic Sea Basins: Tectonic and Environmental controls on sediment sourcing

Journal of the Geological Society ◽

10.1144/jgs2020-247 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. jgs2020-247

Author(s):

Odhrán McCarthy ◽

Brenton Fairey ◽

Patrick Meere ◽

David Chew ◽

Aidan Kerrison ◽

...

Keyword(s):

White Mica ◽

Heavy Mineral ◽

Irish Sea ◽

Sediment Provenance ◽

Environmental Controls ◽

Mineral Data ◽

Celtic Sea ◽

Basin Region ◽

Atlantic Margin ◽

Local Sourcing

The Jurassic and Cretaceous sedimentary infill of the Irish and Celtic Sea basins is intimately associated with the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea, and the opening of the Atlantic margin. Previous basin studies have constrained tectonism, basin uplift and sediment composition, but sediment provenance and routing have not received detailed consideration. Current hypotheses for basin infill suggest localised sediment sourcing throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous, despite a dynamic tectonic and paleoenvironmental history spanning more than 100 million years. We present detrital zircon, white mica and apatite geochronology alongside heavy mineral data from five basins. Findings reveal that basin infill derived predominantly from distal sources with lesser periods of local sourcing. We deduce that tectonically induced marine transgression and regression events had a first-order control on distal versus proximal sedimentary sourcing. Additionally, tectonism which uplifted the Fastnet Basin region during the Middle–Late Jurassic recycled basin sediments into the connected Celtic and Irish Sea Basins. Detrital geochronology and heavy mineral evidence support three distinct provenance switches throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous in these basins. Overall an integrated multi-proxy provenance approach provides novel insights to tectonic and environmental controls on basin infill as demonstrated in the Irish and Celtic Sea Basins.

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Sediment provenance analysis of the Permian from the Perth Basin using an automated Raman heavy mineral technique

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj20080 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 61 (2) ◽

pp. 688

Author(s):

Stuart Munday ◽

Anne Forbes ◽

Brenton Fairey ◽

Juliane Hennig-Breitfeld ◽

Tim Breitfeld ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Raman Spectroscopy ◽

Heavy Mineral ◽

Heavy Minerals ◽

Sediment Provenance ◽

Late Permian ◽

Provenance Analysis ◽

Spectroscopy Analysis ◽

The North ◽

Mineral Data ◽

Provenance Variations

The Early Permian in the onshore Perth Basin has experienced several significant discoveries in the last 8 years. Beginning with the play-opening Waitsia discovery (AWE), this was followed more recently by the Beharra Springs Deep (Beach Energy) and West Erregulla (Strike) discoveries. In addition, Late Permian sands (Dongara and Wagina sandstones) have long been recognised as excellent reservoirs in the basin. This study attempts to better understand the provenance of the Early and Late Permian sediments using automated Raman spectroscopy as a tool to identify variations in heavy mineral assemblages. Automated Raman spectroscopy analysis of heavy minerals minimises operator bias inherent in more traditional optical heavy mineral analyses. These data are integrated with publicly available chemostratigraphy data to enable a better understanding of sediment provenance variations with stratigraphy. In addition, publicly available detrital zircon geochronological data are incorporated to help further understand sediment sources. A transect of wells is investigated, from Arrowsmith-1 in the southernmost extent to Depot Hill-1 and Mt Horner-1 in the north. While the elemental (chemostratigraphy) data suggest some changes in sediment provenance through the Permian of the Perth Basin, the Raman heavy mineral data confirm a number of sediment provenance changes both at key formational boundaries (e.g. top Kingia sandstone) and complex sediment provenance variation within reservoir sandstone units. These results are integrated to demonstrate how sediment provenance holds the key to understanding controls on variable reservoir quality as well as understanding the early infill in this basin.

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Interpretation of Sedimentary Processes Using Heavy Mineral Unconstrained Data

10.20944/preprints201810.0280.v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

João Cascalho

Keyword(s):

Low Frequency ◽

Principal Component ◽

Heavy Mineral ◽

Heavy Minerals ◽

Primary Sources ◽

Metamorphic Rocks ◽

Mineral Occurrence ◽

Mineral Data ◽

Grain Sorting ◽

Log Ratio

This work describes and interprets the presence of heavy minerals in the western Portuguese continental margin using a set of 78 bottom samples collected from 3 distinct areas of this margin: Porto, Aveiro and Nazaré canyon head areas. The main transparent heavy mineral suite (minerals with frequencies >10%), is composed by amphiboles (hornblende), mica (biotite), andalusite, tourmaline and garnet. A secondary suite (minerals with frequencies between 1 and 10%), is composed by pyroxene (enstatite, diopside and augite), staurolite, zircon and apatite. With very low frequency representing less than 1% we found rutile, olivine, kyanite, monazite, epidote, sphene, anatase, sillimanite and brookite. The main primary sources (igneous and metamorphic rocks) explain the presence of these minerals. However, the application of the principal component analysis, with a previous application of the centered log ratio transformation of the heavy mineral data, also stresses for the importance of the grain sorting as a process in controlling the heavy mineral occurrence. The importance of this process is mostly sustained by the distribution pattern of mica and of the most flattened amphibole grains in a way that these particles tend to have a hydraulic affinity to finer grained sediments.

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Detrital zircon geochronology and heavy mineral analysis as complementary provenance tools in the presence of extensive weathering, reworking and recycling: the Neogene of the southern North Sea Basin

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s0016756821000133 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Jasper Verhaegen ◽

Hilmar von Eynatten ◽

István Dunkl ◽

Gert Jan Weltje

Keyword(s):

North Sea ◽

Chemical Weathering ◽

Heavy Mineral ◽

Mineral Analysis ◽

Provenance Analysis ◽

Detrital Zircon Geochronology ◽

Southern North Sea ◽

Variable Heavy ◽

Mineral Data ◽

Heavy Mineral Analysis

Abstract Heavy mineral analysis is a long-standing and valuable tool for sedimentary provenance analysis. Many studies have indicated that heavy mineral data can also be significantly affected by hydraulic sorting, weathering and reworking or recycling, leading to incomplete or erroneous provenance interpretations if they are used in isolation. By combining zircon U–Pb geochronology with heavy mineral data for the southern North Sea Basin, this study shows that the classic model of sediment mixing between a northern and a southern source throughout the Neogene is more complex. In contrast to the strongly variable heavy mineral composition, the zircon U–Pb age spectra are mostly constant for the studied samples. This provides a strong indication that most zircons had an initial similar northern source, yet the sediment has undergone intense chemical weathering on top of the Brabant Massif and Ardennes in the south. This weathered sediment was later recycled into the southern North Sea Basin through local rivers and the Meuse, leading to a weathered southern heavy mineral signature and a fresh northern heavy mineral signature, yet exhibiting a constant zircon U–Pb age signature. Thus, this study highlights the necessity of combining multiple provenance proxies to correctly account for weathering, reworking and recycling.

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Multi-Proxy Provenance Analyses of the Kingriali and Datta Formations (Triassic—Jurassic Transition): Evidence for Westward Extension of the Neo-Tethys Passive Margin from the Salt Range (Pakistan)

Minerals ◽

10.3390/min11060573 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 573

Author(s):

Shahid Iqbal ◽

Michael Wagreich ◽

Mehwish Bibi ◽

Irfan U. Jan ◽

Susanne Gier

Keyword(s):

Lower Jurassic ◽

Sediment Supply ◽

Heavy Mineral ◽

Passive Margin ◽

Indian Plate ◽

Late Triassic ◽

Indian Shield ◽

Margin Setting ◽

Salt Range ◽

Mineral Data

The Salt Range, in Pakistan, preserves an insightful sedimentary record of passive margin dynamics along the NW margin of the Indian Plate during the Mesozoic. This study develops provenance analyses of the Upper Triassic (Kingriali Formation) to Lower Jurassic (Datta Formation) siliciclastics from the Salt and Trans Indus ranges based on outcrop analysis, petrography, bulk sediment elemental geochemistry, and heavy-mineral data. The sandstones are texturally and compositionally mature quartz arenites and the conglomerates are quartz rich oligomictic conglomerates. Geochemical proxies support sediment derivation from acidic sources and deposition under a passive margin setting. The transparent heavy mineral suite consists of zircon, tourmaline, and rutile (ZTR) with minor staurolite in the Triassic strata that diminishes in the Jurassic strata. Together, these data indicate that the sediments were supplied by erosion of the older siliciclastics of the eastern Salt Range and adjoining areas of the Indian Plate. The proportion of recycled component exceeds the previous literature estimates for direct sediment derivation from the Indian Shield. A possible increase in detritus supply from the Salt Range itself indicates notably different conditions of sediment generation, during the Triassic–Jurassic transition. The present results suggest that, during the Triassic–Jurassic transition in the Salt Range, direct sediment supply from the Indian Shield was probably reduced and the Triassic and older siliciclastics were exhumed on an elevated passive margin and reworked by a locally established fluvio-deltaic system. The sediment transport had a north-northwestward trend parallel to the northwestern Tethyan margin of the Indian Plate and normal to its opening axis. During the Late Triassic, hot and arid hot-house palaeoclimate prevailed in the area that gave way to a hot and humid greenhouse palaeoclimate across the Triassic–Jurassic Boundary. Sedimentological similarity between the Salt Range succession and the Neo-Tethyan succession exposed to the east on the northern Indian passive Neo-Tethyan margin suggests a possible westward extension of this margin.

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