Distribución transversal y procesos de selección de minerales pesados en la playa de Catania (Italia)

Resumen

Heavy minerals from Catania beach (Italy) have been analised in 4 1 sand samples collected along 19 cross-shore transepts, with the aim of obtaining information about selective sorting processes operating across the beach. The results show that wave action and coastline orientation concentrate heavy minerals in the backshore and at the ends of the beach. Moreover, it has been verified that heavy minerals in the study area tend to concentrate in the cross-shore direction into the finestgrained samples. The most abundant heavy mineral species, opaque minerals and clinopyroxenes, show completely different mechanical and hydrodynamical behaviours, which could be due to differences in density, grain size and shape: opaque minerals tend to concentrate in the beach shore, while the concentration of clinopyroxenes and other non-opaque minerals increases in sand dunes. No clear relationship between mean grain size and heavy mineral species composition has been found when studying the heavy fraction distribution.