Regional distribution of Heavy-mineral concentrations along the Curonian Spit coast of Lithuania

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pupienis, D., Buynevich I.V., Jarmalavicius, D., Žilinskas, G., and Fedorovic, J., 2013. Regional distribution of Heavy-mineral concentrations along the Curonian Spit coast of Lithuania Heavy-mineral concentrations (HMCs) in coastal sands serve as important indicators of hydrometeorological and sedimentological conditions. Along the southeast Baltic Sea coast, quartz- and feldspar-rich sands contain variable amounts (1–8%) of heavy minerals, such as garnet, rutile, zircon, magnetite, ilmenite, hornblende, and other accessory minerals. Their concentrations are found along the Baltic Sea coast of the Curonian Spit, a 98-km-long barrier divided between the Russian Federation (47 km) in the south and the Republic of Lithuania (51 km) in the north. The open sea beach sites range from 25 to 80 m in width and are backed by 5–16 m height foredunes. To examine the patterns in HMC distribution, a total of 303 surface sand samples were collected from the middle of the beach, foredune toe, and stoss slope at...