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Understanding heavy mineral dynamics using magnetic fingerprinting technique: A case study of North Maharashtra Coast, India

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title Understanding heavy mineral dynamics using magnetic fingerprinting technique: A case study of North Maharashtra Coast, India
 
Creator Badesab, F.K.
Iyer, S.D.
Gujar, A.R.
Naik, D.K.
Gaonkar, S.S.
Luis, R.A.A.
Shirodkar, P.
Naik, Smita
 
Subject Geology and geophysics
Aquatic resources
Geology and geophysics
Geology and geophysics
 
Description Environmental magnetic and grain size measurements were carried out on sand samples collected from nine sand pits along a 20-km coastal stretch of Arnala Beach, North Maharashtra, India. This study sets out to identify the potential heavy (magnetite) mineral-rich sites in a dynamic coastal system and decipher their enrichment processes. Combination of rock-magnetic and grain size data of the sand pits mirrors the differential heavy mineral fluxes along the coast. Two distinct and well-separated bands of magnetite enrichments were identified. The upper magnetite band (UMB) is more pronounced and shows uniform magnetite enrichment representing the present-day beach erosional state. A well-separated lower magnetite band (LMB) had highest magnetite concentration at Vaitarna River mouth and depicts a strong decrease in magnetite content and clastic (mean) grain size away from the river mouth. This suggests that the NW-SE-directed coast-parallel sediment transport in the past played a major role in the formation of magnetite-rich layers of LMB. A non-enriched zone (NEZ) between UMB and LMB is magnetically weak and showed large variations in clastic grain sizes and possibly represents a period of sediment accretion. A strong correlation between magnetite concentration and magnetic grain size was found for all the sand pit samples, with highest magnetic susceptibility values being dominated by coarser magnetic grains. This relationship needs to be further exploited as a potential fingerprint to identify the heavy mineral lag deposits in coastal environments. Our study explores the potential of using environmental magnetism and sedimentological methods to identify the potential areas enriched in heavy (magnetic) minerals and explains the mechanism of their formation
 
Date 2017-09-27T13:09:11Z
2017-09-27T13:09:11Z
2017
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Environmental Earth Sciences, vol.76; 2017; No.257 doi:10.1007/s12665-017-6576-y
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/5189
 
Language en
 
Rights An edited version of this paper was published by Springer. This paper is for R & D purpose and Copyright [2017] Springer.
 
Publisher Springer