The provenance of Cretaceous to Quaternary sediments in the Tarfaya basin, SW Morocco: Evidence from trace element geochemistry and radiogenic Nd–Sr isotopes

Provenance and depositional history of continental slope sediments in the Southwestern Gulf of Mexico unraveled by geochemical analysis

“…This indicates a moderate degree of chemical weathering in the source area. The Al 2 O 3 /Na 2 O ratio is also considered as a good tool to constrain the weathering intensity (Asadi et al, 2013;Ali et al, 2014). In general, the Al 2 O 3 /Na 2 O ratios in the core sediments are small ($ 3-6), indicating moderate weathering intensity, which is consistent with the CIA values.…”

“…The correlation for Al 2 O 3 versus Th for the upper (r ¼ À0.04, p o0.05, n¼ 10), middle (r ¼ À0.56, p o0.05, n ¼10), and lower (r ¼0.39, p o0.05, n ¼10) sections is statistically not significant, suggesting that their distribution is not mainly controlled by phyllosilicates (López et al, 2005). Similarly, a negative correlation obtained between K 2 O and Rb for the upper (r ¼ À0.60, p o0.05, n ¼10), middle (r ¼ À0.43, p o0.05, n ¼10), and lower (r ¼ À0.40, p o0.05, n ¼10) sections, indicates that its distribution is not related to illites (Ali et al, 2014).…”

“…These correlations suggest that REEs are mainly housed in detrital minerals, probably zircon rather than clay minerals (e.g. Ali et al, 2014). Recent studies (Armstrong-Altrin et al, 2012; Natalhy-Pineda, 2013) on the geochemistry of beach sands along the Gulf of Mexico showed that heavy minerals like zircon are enriched in the finegrained sands.…”

“…Several trace elements, such as REE, Y, Th, Zr, Hf, Nb and Sc are most suited to study sediment provenance, because of their relatively low mobility during sedimentary processes and their short residence times in sea water (Cullers et al, 1979). Indeed, the trace element contents of sediments have been widely used to investigate sediment provenance (Martins et al, 2012;Prego et al, 2012), weathering intensity Ali et al, 2014) and to understand the depositional environment (Jung et al, 2012;Verma and Armstrong-Altrin, 2013).…”

Siliciclastic input into upper Cenomanian synorogenic sediments of the High-Tatric Unit, Central Western Carpathians (Tatra Mountains); petrography, geochemistry and provenance

“…The ra tios be tween rel a tively im mo bile trace el e ments, includ ing La/Sc, Th/Sc, Th/Co and Th/Cr, are also con sid ered suitable in di ca tors of par ent rock prov e nance (e.g., Wron kiewicz and Condie, 1990;Cox et al, 1995;Cullers, 1995;Cai et al, 2011;Ali et al, 2014). This is sup ported by the fact that La, Th and Hf are en riched in fel sic rocks, whereas Co, Cr, and Sc are more concen trated in mafic rocks.…”