Heavy Minerals and Rare Earth Elements in Coastal and Inland Dune Sands of El Vizcaino Desert, Baja California Peninsula, Mexico

Abstract

A heavy mineral (HM) study and light and heavy rare earth elements (LREE and HREE) analysis were performed in coastal and inland dune sands, El Vizcaino Desert, Central Baja California Peninsula, Mexico. Our study shows high abundances of hornblende and apatite in the El Vizcaino dune sands, suggesting a dominance of granodiorites/intermediate plutonic rocks and marine authigenic phosphorite in the dune sands. There is a relationship between unstable heavy minerals like hornblende, pyroxenes, and sphene, and heavy rare earth elements (HREE) that suggests that unstable heavy minerals are potential carriers of HREE in the dune fields. However, there is a slight depletion of HREE in relation to LREE, especially in one locality of the inland dunes probably associated with the wind regime and weathering of unstable heavy minerals in the sands. Inland, transitional, and coastal dune fields can be observed as different dune provinces by means of grouping HM and REE data in two separate dendograms. It seems that HREE are correlated with fine-grained sand sizes and correlated with high CIA values linked to slightly weathered sands.