Control in Beach and Dune Sands of the Gulf of Mexico and the Role of Nearby Rivers

Abstract

A sedimentological, petrographic, and geochemical study of beach, dune, and river sands was carried out along the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. The main goal of this work is to show how beach and dune sands are controlled texturally, compositionally, and chemically by the nearby rivers for each beach location using a particle size analyser, a polarized microscope, a X-ray fluorescence and ICP mass spectrometer to obtain the following: grain-size values from one river (Carrizal River) are similar in range to their counterpart beach sands but not similar to the dune sands (Barra del Tordo). Rivers (Panuco and Carrizal) are compositionally controlling the quartz and feldspar contents of their counterpart beach and dune sands (i.e., Playa Miramar and Barra del Tordo). Rivers (Soto La Marina River) are directly influencing the composition of the beach sands (La Pesca) based upon the total quartz content, beach and dune sands. The concentration of magnetite grain fractions (Barra del Tordo beach and dune sands) is not under the influence of the nearby river (Carrizal River). In this case the compositional influence of beach and dune sands is related to sediment discharges by other fluvial systems, redistribution of the beach and dune sands along the coast and deflation/winnowing of light minerals. The Eu positive anomaly in the beach and dune sands from the three sites (i.e. Playa Miramar, Barra del Tordo, La Pesca) is linked to an increase in the P(plagioclase)/K(potash feldspar) ratio. The (La/Lu) cn highest ratio for river sands (Carrizal River) suggests quartz enrichment compared to their beach and dune sands counterparts. The (Gd/Yb) cn ratio for one river (i.e., Carrizal River) indicates that it is low in heavy rare earth elements. HREE compared to their beach and dune sands counterparts indicates less concentration of heavy minerals as potential carriers of HREE seawards.

Provenance inferred through modern beach sands from the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Mexico

“…This is supported by the modal analysis performed on the sands from WGT, where the petrographic trend moves towards the Lm pole. Low REE concentrations in samples 5 and 6 suggest the presence of aeolian quartz, which has a diluting effect on REE concentrations during the strong northerly Tehuantepecos winds (Carranza‐Edwards, ; Kasper‐Zubillaga, Armstrong Altrin, Carranza‐Edwards, Morton‐Bermea, & Lozano Santa Cruz, ; Steenburgh et al, ).…”

Evaluation of two multidimensional discrimination diagrams from beach and deep-sea sediments from the Gulf of Mexico and their application to Precambrian clastic sedimentary rocks

“…The geochemistry data were from the Playa Azul, Tecolutla, Nautla, Tampico, Chachalacas, and Coatzacoalcos beaches, Veracruz State, Mexico (T1, T2, T3, and T4; Figure 1). The reference sources were Armstrong-Altrin et al (2012) and Kasper-Zubillaga et al (2013), except for Chachalacas and Coatzacoalcos beaches, which were analysed in this study (Table 1). The locality, age, sample type, and number of samples used for test study are given in Table 3.…”

Immature beach/dune sands along a passive continental margin: Composition, grain size and hydraulic properties of coastal sands, Parque del Plata and Las Vegas, Uruguay

“…Variation in the local composition of beach and coastal dune sands is controlled by the composition of new sediment added to the system by stream or river input, erosion of bounding or outcropping geological units (cliffs and shoreline outcrop of rocks), onshore movement of sediment from subtidal areas (high tide bars), longshore transport and mechanical abrasion of the metastable minerals, storm transport of beach sediment to deeper water, selective wind transport of sediment to the foredunes, cycling of coastal dune sands back onto beaches, geochemical removal of metastable minerals within the dunes and offshore migration of the very fine sand and silt fraction (Abuodha, ; Davis & Fitzgerald, ; Pye, , ; Suttener, Basu, & Mack, ; Valloni, ). Beach sediments found along the passive margin of continents are commonly predominantly composed of quartz sands containing 10%–15% or less of feldspar and rock fragments in the areas not under the influence of major rivers transporting large concentrations of feldspars and rock fragments sediment to the coast (Bhatia, ; Dickinson et al., ; Garzanti et al., ; Kasper‐Zubillaga, Armstrong‐Altrin, Carranza‐Edwards, Morton‐Berma, & Santa Cruz, ; Lucchi, ; Potter, ; Table ). Long distance and duration transport in the littoral zone in passive margin settings can produce predominantly quartz sands (quartz arenites) such as those found in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the shorelines of Florida and most of Brazil (Hsu, ; Martens, ; Potter, ).…”