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Provenance-related characteristics of beach sediments around the island of Menorca, Balearic Islands (western Mediterranean)

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Abstract

The island of Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands (Spain) located in the western Mediterranean, is characterised by a contrasting geology and landscape with two major geographic domains: (1) a southern region called Migjorn, comprised of Late Miocene calcarenites and limestones, and (2) a northern region known as Tramuntana, which is composed of folded and faulted Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Tertiary (Oligocene) siliceous and calcareous rocks. Both domains are lined by numerous pocket beaches exhibiting a high variety of surficial sediment assemblages. Grain-size and compositional analyses revealed that cliff erosion and nearshore Posidonia oceanica meadows are the main sources of sediments consisting mostly of medium- to coarse-grained carbonate sands of marine biogenic origin, with variable amounts of terrigenous rock fragments and quartz. Based on distinctly different contributions of bioclastic material, biogenic carbonates and quartz, 320 sediment samples from 64 beaches were grouped into different facies associations dominated by either (1) biogenic sands, (2) biogenic sands with terrigenous contributions or (3) terrigenous sands with quartz. Nevertheless, there is a marked regional variability in sediment texture and composition. Thus, variable mixtures of carbonate and siliciclastic sediments characterise the beaches of the northern region, whereas the beaches of the southern region are composed mostly of carbonate sands of marine biogenic origin. An exception is the central sector of the south coast, which is enriched in quartz sand (~10 %); this can be related to outcrops of quartz-rich basement rock and also to rocks exposed in some northern drainage basins captured by southern streams since the Plio-Quaternary.

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Acknowledgements

This work is a contribution to the CGL2010-18616 project of the Spanish Government. Additional funding was provided by the “Institut Menorquí d’Estudis (IME)” investigation award. We are grateful to J.E. Pardo and B. Cañellas for providing the DTM and wave data analysis. We thank two anonymous referees, as well as the journal editors for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Also acknowledged are the editor-in-chief B.W. Flemming and L.M. Boop for improving the English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SOCIB, Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System, Parc Bit, Edifici Naorte, 07121, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain

    Lluís Gómez-Pujol & Pau Balaguer

  2. Karst & Coastal Geomorphology Research Group, University of the Balearic Islands, Cra. Valldemossa km 7.5, 07122, Palma, Spain

    Lluís Gómez-Pujol, Joan J. Fornós & Jaume Mateu

  3. Western Mediterranean Biogeography, Geodynamics and Sedimentology Research Group, University of the Balearic Islands, Cra. Valldemossa km 7.5, 07122, Palma, Spain

    Francesc X. Roig-Munar

  4. IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats, Miquel Marquès 21, 07190, Esporles, Spain

    Lluís Gómez-Pujol

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  1. Lluís Gómez-Pujol
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  2. Francesc X. Roig-Munar
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Correspondence to Lluís Gómez-Pujol.

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Gómez-Pujol, L., Roig-Munar, F.X., Fornós, J.J. et al. Provenance-related characteristics of beach sediments around the island of Menorca, Balearic Islands (western Mediterranean). Geo-Mar Lett 33, 195–208 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-012-0314-y

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