Provenance memories and maturity of holocene sands in northwest Mexico

Abstract

Beach and fluvial sediments from the region around Todos Santos Bay, Baja California, have been studied to determine their maturity, provenance, chemical alteration, and tectonic relationships. Analysis of the CaO–Na2O–K2O content of several samples demonstrated a difference between those from a beach environment and those from a fluvial environment. Transport affects the characteristics of the sediment, producing an enrichment of material resistant to chemical and physical attack on the beach area. The beach sand samples are mineralogically and chemically more mature than those from the fluvial sands. The provenance index (feldspar/rock fragments) gives relatively low average values for fluvial sands, provided that they are richer in rock fragments. The chemical index of alteration has low average values for beach sands because the minerals are more resistant to energy from waves and currents. Tectonic settings, defined through the binary diagram from Roser and Korsch, suggest that the samples belong to active continental margin and arc domains. When tectonic fields are assigned, based on a Q–F–L triangular diagram analysis, the sediments from the study area fall in an active magmatic arc field, even though this region is not presently subject to subduction.