Some problems associated with the analysis and interpretation of mixed carbonate and quartz beach sands, illustrated by examples from North-West Ireland

Abstract

Mixes of carbonate and quartz sands, which are commonly encountered in Recent coastal sediments, require careful analysis if they are to be correctly interpreted. Grain-size data fall into multimodal or segmented zig-zag distributions which may require some kind of component separation if they are to be summarised by conventional statistics, and before they can be assigned to a particular hydrodynamic depositional process or environment. Unfortunately, separation techniques are only spasmodically applied, usually without due regard to the consequences. Such artificially filtered or truncated distributions are of little subsequent use. Using a range of samples from two beaches in NW Ireland, where carbonate proportions range from nearly zero to over sixty percent, the interrelationships of the two dominant components were examined. Where only a small carbonate proportion is incorporated into a large quartz one, predictable modifications of the size-curve are apparent. However, the components are more independent if mixtures are near equal. The occurrence of a number of distinctive combinations of simple straight lines and complex zig-zag curves probably reflects the relatively dynamic nature of the carbonate fraction.