Geochemical behavior of rare-earth elements and other major and minor elements in sound-producing and silent beach sands in Japan

Abstract

The major element composition of sound-producing sand is reported together with rare-earth elements (REE) and other selected elements for the first time. Rare-earth element concentrations in beach sands from Miyagi and Tottori in Japan were determined by induction-coupled, argon-plasma spectrometry (ICP-MS) to characterize the REE of sound-producing and silent sands relative to the parental rocks. Sound-producing sand beaches are very common and all over in Japan: five beaches in Miyagi and 2 in Tottori are selected with other silent sand beaches in the areas. Both sound-producing sand and silent sand samples from Miyagi and Tottori contain more than 60wt% of SiO2 and are composed mainly of quartz and feldspar. Miyagi sand samples are characterized by light REE enrichment and flat chondrite-normalized patterns that are similar to those of local source sandstone. However, all sand samples from Miyatojima in Miyagi show positive Eu anomalies, a characteristic feature not shown in other sand samples from Miyagi. Tottori sand samples also are characterized by high REE contents and remarkable positive Eu anomalies. The sands containing lower REE contents are due to high quartz and feldspar contents. Miyatojima sand samples and Tottori sand samples have high REE contents and show remarkable positive Eu anomalies due to the presence of feldspar.