Concentrations of mercury, lead, copper, zinc, cadmium, iron and partially chromium, manganese, nickel and aluminium, were recorded in surface sediments at the lower reaches of 11 rivers from the Mediterranean coastal zone of Israel, during 1988-1993. Excluding the lower Kishon river, no major contamination was found at most of the stations when trace metal concentrations were normalized against iron concentrations (trace metal/iron ratios) and compared to levels recorded in stream sediments from the southern drainage basin of the Kishon river. Minor enrichments found in part of the rivers are attributed to land-based point sources of pollution. Variations in trace metal concentrations at the estuaries are related to high influx of fine-grained sediments transported by heavy floods during rainy winters, which later are resuspended and transported seaward by bottom currents.

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Garnet is a widespread minor accessory mineral in the Late Proterozoic Elat-Quarry granite of southern Israel and is more abundant in the associated pegmatite and aplite. All garnets are dominated by almandine and spessartine end-members. Granite-hosted garnets are zoned with relative enrichment of Mn in the core and Fe in the rim. The chemistry of the garnet in the pegmatite and aplite are comparable to the rim compositions of garnets in the granite, but with a slight Fe-depletion at the rims. Geochemical parameters for the granite indicate fractional crystallization largely of an S-type source magma to a peraluminous composition.In the highly evolved granite magma, Fe is relatively diminished, and only small amounts of biotite can crystallize. Manganese becomes a compatible element forming Mn-rich garnet (cores), and reducing the Mn content in the magma, subsequently leading to Fe-enriched rims. The greater abundance of garnet in the pegmatite and aplite (and its larger crystal-size in the former) relate to the enhanced presence of a hydrous fluid within the magma. The tendency for garnet crystals to concentrate in bands is much more developed in the pegmatite than in the granite, and is associated with the effects of hydrofracturing (fracture-filling), and the crystallization of coarse-grained alkaline feldspars.

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