Mineral tracers of the alongshore sediment transport (example from the South-Eastern Baltic Sea)

Abstract

The alongshore sediment transport plays a key role in the development of the coastal zone of the Sambia Peninsula, the Curonian, and Vistula (Baltic) spits of the South-Eastern Baltic Sea. One of the considerable indicators of the general direction of sediment transport is natural minerals-tracers, for example, glauconite. The distribution of glauconite in the upper layer of sediments marks the direction and intensity of the transport of suspended sediments, and, consequently, determines the boundary of the coastal lithodynamic system. Paleogene deposits are the only known source of glauconite on the coast of the Kaliningrad region which outcrops at the Sambia Peninsula. The grain size, morphological and mineralogical analyses of the bottom sediments were done.