Abstract
This article proposes a new integrated methodology to determine the miner- alogical composition of silt-sized sediments, reaching the same precision level required to perform quantitative provenance analysis as traditionally done on sand-sized sediments. We examine technical problems encountered in analysis of silt and illustrate how they can be solved for suspended load in a modern fluviodeltaic environment. All methods described here, and specifically the user-friendly Raman spectroscopy, can be routinely applied in mineralogical studies of ancient siltstones. Provenance information can thus be extracted from mudrocks, which represent a very conspicuous part of the stratigraphical record and are prone to preserve original detrital assemblages from diagenetic dissolution better than permeable interlayered sandstones. Quantitative mineralogical analysis of silt- sized sediments by innovative techniques opens up new frontiers in sedimentary petrology. Such an effective approach is of crucial importance to make accurate provenance diag- noses and sediment budgets and to correctly unravel the innumerable pieces of geological information stored in sedimentary archives from the alluvial plain to the deep-sea.
Published Version
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