Discriminant Analysis Of The Sediment Provenance In Outer East China Sea

Stepwise discriminant analysis was used on mineralogical and geochemical data of the 230 sediment samples and 2 cores from Yellow River, Changjiang River and Outer East China sea, in order to study on provenance and dividing formation.Artificial Neural NetworkC ANN ) analysis of the heavy mineral group and heavy mineral ratio as a tracer suggest that surface detrial sediments in Outer East China Sea were derived mainly from Changjiang River, and widespreadly presented in outer shelf, continental slope and western bottom of the Okinawa Trough. But the sediments in central bottom of the Okinawa Trough and the island slope were derived from volcanic source rocks in Ryukyu Island Arc. The detritus from Yellow River and Southern Yellow Sea were dispersed to local area, north of 27?N .Basis on correspondence analysis and fuzzy cluster for mineralogical and geochemical data, the core Q43 from outer shelf was divided into three formations which has different features in the heavy minerals and the trace elements. The formation I is characterized hornblende -epidote - pyroxene assemblage, lower contents of schistic mineral and authigenous pyrite, and relatively higher abundance in Cd and affected by V, Cd, Cr, Sc which are active and inactive elements. The formation II is hornblende -epidote -magnetite - ilmenite assemblage, enriched in heavy mineral and opaque mineral, and controlled by ultrastable elements which are Ti, Th, Sc, Pb etc.The formation III is hornblende-authigenous pyrite-mica assemblage,and influenced by Co, Ni, Mn, which are volcanism elements. The mineralological and geochemical features in the core Q43 show environmental change in the depositional process.The core 155 from the Okinawa Through was divided into two formations using fuzzy cluster analysis for heavy mineral data. The dividing line of formation conforms with AMS14C data. Holocence Epoch is characterized by hornblende-epidote-authigenous pyrite-ilmenite assemblage. However Pleistone Epoch is an authigenous pyrite-hornblende-biotite assemblage. It is considered to be differences of environment and provenance between outer shelf and the Through.