Compositional variations, chemical weathering, and provenance of sands from the Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata beach areas, Bangladesh

Abstract

The modal and chemical composition of sands from Cox’s Bazar beach (CBB) and Kuakata beach (KB) areas of Bangladesh has been investigated to infer their maturity, chemical weathering, and provenance signatures. The CBB and KB sands are typically high quartz, low feldspar, and lithic fragments, representing a recycled orogen source. Major element compositions of CBB sands are characterized by high SiO2 (83.52–89.84 wt%) and low Al2O3 (4.39–6.39 wt%), whereas KB sands contained relatively low SiO2 (63.28–79.14 wt%) and high Al2O3 (9.00–11.33 wt%) contents. The major, trace and rare earth element (REE) compositions of beach sands display comparable distribution patterns with enriched Th and SiO2 for both sands relative to upper continental crust (UCC). Pb, Rb, Y, and Fe for KB sands are little higher than UCC and the rest of the elements are marked depleted for both suites reflecting destruction of plagioclase and K-feldspar during fluvial transportation. The CBB and KB sands are compositionally low mature to immature in nature subsequently classified as subarkose and litharenite, respectively. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns for CBB and KB sands show LREE enrichment and nearly flat HREE (LaN/YbN, 7.64–9.38 and 5.48–8.82, respectively) coupled with prominent Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu*, 0.51–0.72 and 0.52–0.76, respectively), suggesting felsic source provenance. The provenance discrimination diagrams, immobile trace element ratios (Th/Sc, Zr/Sc, Ce/Sc, and Ti/Zr), and REE (∑LREE/HREE, Eu/Eu* and GdN/YbN) parameters indicate that CBB and KB sands were largely derived from felsic source rocks, with compositions close to average rhyolite, granodiorite, granite, and UCC.