Characteristics Of Surficial Sediments And Their Sedimentation In The Offshore Area Of The North-eastern Shandong Peninsula

The study area is located in the offshore area of the north-eastern Shandong Peninsula (121o30′～123o00′E ,37o00′～38o00′N).The west part of the north Yellow Sea is a main pass of sediment dispersion and an important area of disposition for the sediment from. It is of great significance for understanding the dynamics of modern sedimentation process of the coastal zone, shelf evolutionary history and the river effect on offshore sedimentation as well as the sediment provenance. Using the data of grain-size distribution, mineral composition and major and trace elements characteristics of the surface sediment samples collected from the area, we discuss the sedimentary environments, sedimentation processes, sedimentary sources and their main controlling factors in the study area.Grain size analysis of the 241 surficial samples from the study area was carried out using the laser grain size analyser. According to Folk's classification(1970), sediments in the area could be divided into silt, sandy silt, silty sand and locally sandy gravel in this area, with sandy silt as the major. The Yellow Sea Coastal Current (YSCC) is the major dynamical factor that dominates the transportation and sedimentation of surface sediments. Along the main pass of YSCC, surface sediments are generally coarser than those on sides, with lower sorting coefficients (inΦvalue) and higher skewness (inΦvalue). The northeast part of the study area is dominated by tidal current, the sediments there show a trend of fining-westward and fining-southward.X-ray diffraction analysis was made for 30 clay mineral samples selected from...