Preliminary Study of Heavy Minerals in the Central Yellow Sea Mud

Abstract

We studied the heavy minerals in 46 surface sediments collected from the Central Yellow Sea Mud (CYSM) to characterize the type, abundance, mineralogical properties and distribution pattern using the stereo-microscopy, field-Emission scanning electron microscopy (FE SEM) and chemical analysis through the energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). Heavy mineral assemblages are primarily composed of epidote group, amphibole group, garnet group, zircon, rutile and sphene in descending order. Epidote group and amphibole group minerals account for more than 50% of total heavy minerals. The minerals in epidote group, amphibole group and garnet group in studied area are epidote, edenite and almandine, respectively. When we divided the CYSM into two regions by , the eastern region contain higher contents of epidote and (zircon + rutile), which are more resistant to weathering but lower of amphibole, which is less resistant to weathering than the western region. Based on this results, it is possible to estimate that the eastern region sediments are transported for a long distance while western region sediments are transported for a short distance from the source area. In the future, the additional study on the heavy minerals in river sediments flowing into the Yellow Sea and much more samples for marine sediments must be carried out to interpret exactly the provenance and sedimentation process.