Surface textures of detrital pyroxenes in coastal dune sands (western Gulf of Mexico, Mexico): Implications for their preservation and geoenvironmental processes

Abstract This work investigates how the surface textures and morphology of pyroxene grains evolve during their source‐to‐sink history. This study applies to detrital clinopyroxenes concentrated in coastal dune sands of the Gulf of Mexico which were sourced in the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt then tra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The depositional record Vol. 9; no. 4; pp. 789 - 809
Main Authors:	Kasper‐Zubillaga, Juan J., Martínez‐Serrano, Raymundo Gerardo, Buchs, David M., Mendieta‐Lora, Mauricio, Arellano‐Torres, Elsa, Álvarez‐Sánchez, León Felipe
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Hoboken John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-11-2023 Wiley
Subjects:	Abrasion clinopyroxene coastal dune sands Coastal plains Coastal zone Coasts compactness Dunes Mexico Minerals Morphology Sand surface textures Volcanic belts Volcanic environments Weathering Mexico Gulf of Mexico
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Summary:	Abstract This work investigates how the surface textures and morphology of pyroxene grains evolve during their source‐to‐sink history. This study applies to detrital clinopyroxenes concentrated in coastal dune sands of the Gulf of Mexico which were sourced in the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt then transported and deposited in environments subject to limited chemical weathering. The composition and morphology of the pyroxenes was characterised using single‐grain geochemical analysis and surface texture imagery with a novel approach based on the compactness property to assess the shape of minerals. This reveals heterogenous diopside‐augite populations, displaying mineral morphologies dominantly controlled by impact breakage along cleavages, little physical abrasion along their edges and with limited evidence for chemical weathering. Mechanical surface textures dominate over mechanical/chemical and chemical surface textures. These mechanical surface textures are preserved primarily as flat cleavage surfaces and rounded edges inherited from fluvial‐intertidal and aeolian transport, respectively. Mechanically/chemically induced surface textures are preserved as elongated depressions. Chemical surface textures are sparse and mostly represented by mammillated textures that suggest local dissolution under subaqueous conditions. The scarcity of chemical surface textures is attributed to frequent fragmentation of the clinopyroxenes along cleavages and limited chemical weathering during transport of the observed populations. Clinopyroxene grains in the coastal dune sands primarily retain surface characteristics from fluvial transport. Although the breakage of minerals along cleavages can obscure their original morphology under a weathering‐limited erosion regime, this study shows how surface textures and morphology of pyroxene grains is used to determine episodes of transport and deposition close to volcanic environments. The use of the compactness property as a shape descriptor measurement of particles provides an alternative approach to observe how clinopyroxene remains unaltered despite the high energy conditions of the coastal area.
ISSN:	2055-4877 2055-4877
DOI:	10.1002/dep2.228