Geochemical Characteristics And Provenance Analysis Of Liao River Estuary Sediments

Liao River estuary, as an entrane of Liao River flowing into the Liaodong Bay, is located in Panjin City, Liaoning Province. Annually, a large number of terrigenous detrital is deposited in Liao River estuary from its provenance such as Hebei Province, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Jilin Province and Liaoning Province. In this paper, the sediments from Liao River estuary are analyzed by geochemical method and multivariate statistics to summarize the characteristic of grain size, element geochemistry and the provenance. The main conclusions are as follows:1. There are three types of sediments from Liao River estuary:clayey silt, sandy silt and silty sand. Clayey silt is dominant, followed by sandy silt, silty sand. The mean grain size, the mean sorting coefficient, the mean skewness and the mean kurtosis are 5.76Φ,2.34,5.76 and 4.92, respectively. The frequency curves are unimodal and modal particle size is about 10μm. The C-M curve shows that the sediments are mainly suspended, suggesting a weak the hydrodynamic condition and single provenance of sediments.2. Of all major elements in the sediments, content and standard deviation of SiO2 are the highest. The content of major elements shows a regular variation along the vertical profile. Compared with the reference materials in other regions, major elements contents in sediments from Liao River estuary are closed to those in UCC and Chinese continent. Of all trace elements in the sediments, content of Ba is the highest. The content of trace elements also shows a regular variation along the vertical profile. Compared with the reference materials in other regions, trace elements contents in sediments from Liao River estuary are closed to the average chemical composition of the cover in Inner Mongolia. The content of rare earth elements of Liao River estuary sediments is low. The slope of the distribution curve is more than 1 and inclined to the right, with enrichment in light rare earth element (LREE). Compared with other regions, the sediments of Liao River Estuary are closer to the Chinese loess.3. The provenance of Liao River estuary sediments are in a cold and dry climate conditions overally, with a fluctuation periodly. The sediments are deposited at a varying temperature from warm to cold. The provenance areas of Liao River estuary sediments probably include the eastern part of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the western Jilin Province. The major provenance could be attributed to the eastern part of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The sediment provenance is in a structural environment of continental island arc.