Mineralogy of The Beach Sands Along the Mediterranean Coast from Benghazi to Bin-Jawwad, NE Libya

Abstract

The present work aims to characterize the mineralogy of the beach sands along the Mediterranean Coast from Benghazi to Bin Jawwad, NE Libya. The microscopic and SEM examinations indicate an abundance of carbonates, quartz, feldspars, and evaporites. The detected heavy minerals are zircon, tourmaline, pistachite, hornblende, garnet, monazite, rutile, titanite, augite, biotite, kyanite, chromian spinel, magnetite, ilmenite, and goethite. Carbonate speciation suggests a difference in sediment age; the central and eastern sides consist of younger sediment, while older, reworked, and diagenetically transformed materials dominate in the western section. Three distinct groups of sediments can be recognized according to their mineral composition. The studied beach sands are mineralogically sub-mature sediments depending on the ZTR indices.