ALBERT

Description: Lipari, an active volcanic island in the Aeolian magmatic arc, is an excellent area to determine the effects of multiple source lithology, climate, weathering, transport and depositional environment on epiclastic sand composition. Volcaniclastic sand samples from 12 modern beaches were petrographically characterized using the Gazzi–Dickinson method, and the proportions of source rocks in combination with topography in associated coastal drainage basins were quantified using GIS. Several types of bedrock in the 12 drainage basins that are the likely prominent sources for sand at each sampled beach were recognized, and divided into two categories of provenance lithotypes: lavas and pyroclastic rocks ranging in composition from basaltic andesitic, to andesitic, to rhyolitic. Volcanic lithic fragments from Lipari beach sand consist of colourless and black glassy volcanic fragments with lathwork, felsitic, vitric and microlitic textures. Moreover, high amounts of detrital less durable minerals, such as pyroxene, olivine and Fe oxides, illustrate how the analysed sands preserve the source rock(s) provenance signals. Applying the concept of Sand Generation Index we see that these lithotypes have different propensities to create detritus, in terms of both grain-size and composition. Clastic contribution from pyroclastic rock outcrops such as pumice is not found in the size ranges studied, suggesting that these pumiceous source rocks probably only produce gravel or very fine sand and silt. This finding has implications for the stratigraphic record because pumice clasts, ranging from medium to fine grain-size, could be underrepresented in older volcaniclastic deposits and overrepresented in other size fractions.

Description: This contribution focuses on a multidisciplinary research showing the geomorphological evolution and the beach sand composition of the Tyrrhenian shoreline between Capo Suvero promontory and Gizzeria Lido village (Calabria, southern Italy). The aim of the geomorphological analysis was to reconstruct the evolutionary shoreline stages and the present-day sedimentary dynamics along approximately 6 km of coastline. The results show a general trend of beach nourishment during the period 1870–2019. In this period, the maximum shoreline accretion value was estimated equal to + 900 m with an average rate of + 6.5 m/yr. Moreover, although the general evolutionary trend is characterized by a remarkable accretion, the geomorphological analysis highlighted continuous modifications of the beaches including erosion processes. The continuous beach modifications occurred mainly between 1953 and 1983 and were caused mainly by human activity in the coastal areas and inside the hydrographic basins. The beach sand composition allowed an assessment of the mainland petrological sedimentary province and its dispersal pattern of the present coastal dynamics. Petrographic analysis of beach sands identified a lithic metamorphi-clastic petrofacies, characterized by abundant fine-grained schists and phyllites sourced from the crystalline terrains of the Coastal Range front and carried by the Savuto River. The sand is also composed of a mineral assemblage comparable to that of the Amato River provenance. In terms of framework detrital constituents of QFL (quartz:feldspars:aphanitic lithic fragments) and of essential extraclasts, such as granitoid:sedimentary:metamorphic phaneritic rock fragments (Rg:Rs:Rm), sand maturity changes moderately from backshore to shoreface, suggesting that transport processes had a little effect on sand maturity. Moreover, the modal composition suggests that the Capo Suvero promontory does not obstruct longshore sand transport from the north. Indeed, sands displaced by currents driven by storm-wave activity bypass this rocky headland.

Description: Volcaniclastic deposits have been extensively analyzed in several settings in the Pacific and circum-Pacific area. Recent volcaniclastic products from Atlantic oceanic islands offer another opportunity to add new data and be an important key to a better understanding of volcanic imprints on the sedimentary record. The Cabo Verde archipelago is an Atlantic Oceanic plateau with late Oligocene to Holocene volcanism. Outcrops consist mainly of mafic and strongly alkaline and ultra-alkaline volcanic (pyroclastic and lava flows) and less abundant intrusive rocks with minor carbonatites and carbonate sedimentary rocks, constituting a multiple-provenance assemblage for the sandy beaches surrounding the islands. Currently, climate is semiarid to hyperarid with ephemeral and intermittent streams. Thirty-six samples of beach sand from six principal Cabo Verde Islands were selected for petrographic inspection. On average, beach sands constitute a volcanolithic petrofacies. A relative increase in carbonate limeclasts and bioclasts dilutes the pure volcaniclastic contribution mainly on the older island beaches (Sao Vicente, Sal, and Boa Vista). The major components of Cabo Verde beach sands are highly variable; in general, composition is a function of island morphological evolution and age. Thus, beaches of the younger islands (Sao Nicolau, Santiago, and Fogo) consist mainly of volcanic lithic fragments, and monomineralic grains of dense minerals such as olivine, pyroxene, and amphibole, and single grains of plagioclase and anorthoclase. By contrast, beaches of older eastern islands (Sal, Boa Vista, and Sao Vicente) contain more calcareous bioclasts, micritic and/or sparitic sedimentary lithic grains. The presence of carbonate grains suggests provenance from shallow carbonate platforms developed during periods of volcanic quiescence. Cabo Verde volcanic sandy fractions are composed mostly of black, brown, and orange glassy volcanic particles exhibiting microlitic, lathwork, and vitric textures. Volcanic particles with lathwork textures are linked to mafic provenance assemblages (nephelinites, basanites, and tephrites). The content of glassy particles is nearly constant in all beaches, and both hydroclastic and epiclastic processes are reflected in these populations of glassy grains. Boa Vista, Sao Vicente, and Santiago beaches contain higher proportions of sideromelane, linked to recent coastal volcanism, and lower proportions of orange and black glassy particles. The concentration of orange glass particles in the beaches of Santiago Island is higher than in the other island beaches. These orange glassy textures have been preserved even if they were sourced from the intensely altered Ancient Eruptive Complex, representing the pre-Miocene seamount stage of Santiago Island. A very small percentage of altered labile monocrystalline grains such as olivine and the paucity of altered volcanic components reflect the weathering-limited erosion regime of the islands. The exposed phonolitic lava flows that occupy only a minor surface part of the inland source produce particles with microlitic texture in sand beaches. Thus, this texture is not exclusive to andesitic, basaltic, and basaltic andesites sources, suggesting the need for a review of these particles as source-sensitive provenance signals.

Description: The use of mineral interfaces, in sand-sized rock fragments, to infer the influence exerted by mechanical durability on the generation of siliciclastic sediments, has been determined for plutoniclastic sand. Conversely, for volcaniclastic sand, it has received much less attention, and, to our knowledge, this is the first attempt to make use of the volcaniclastic interfacial modal mineralogy of epiclastic sandy fragments, to infer mechanical durability control at a modern beach environment. Volcaniclastic sand was collected along five beaches developed on five islands, of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (Alicudi, Filicudi, Salina, Panarea and Stromboli) from the Aeolian Archipelago, and one sample was collected near the Stromboli Island volcanic crater. Each sample was sieved and thin sectioned for petrographic analysis. The modal mineralogy of the very coarse, coarse and medium sand fractions was determined by point-counting of the interfacial boundaries discriminating 36 types of interfaces categories, both no-isomineralic and/or no iso-structural (e.g., phenocrystal/glassy groundmass or phenocrystal/microlitic groundmass boundaries) and iso-mineralic interfaces, inside volcanic lithic grains with lathwork and porphyric textures. A total of 47,386 interfacial boundaries have been counted and, the most representative series of interfaces, from the highest to the lowest preservation, can be grouped as: a) ultrastable interfaces, categorized as Pl (Plagioclase)/Glgr (Glassy groundmass) 〉 〉 Px (Pyroxene)/Glgr 〉 〉 Ol (Olivine)/Glgr 〉 〉 Op (Opaque)/Glgr 〉 〉 Hbl (Hornblende)/Glgr〉 〉 Bt (Biotite)/Glgr 〉 〉 Idd (Iddingsite)/Glgr 〉 〉 Rt (Rutile) / Glgr; b) stable interfaces, categorized as Pl/Migr (Microlitic groundmass) 〉 〉 Op/Migr 〉 〉 Px/Migr 〉 〉 Ol/Migr; c) moderately stable interfaces, categorized as Op/Px 〉 〉 Op/Hbl 〉 〉 Px/P 〉 〉 Ol/Pl〉 〉 Bt/Op; and d) unstable interfaces, categorized as Pl/Pl 〉 〉 Px/Px 〉 〉 Ol/Ol 〉 〉 Op/Op 〉 〉 Hbl/Hbl 〉 〉 Bt/Bt. Grains, eroded from the volcanic bedrock, if affected solely by abrasion, developed a rounded and smoothed form, with prevailing no-isostructural interfaces such as Plagioclase/Glassy groundmass, Pyroxene/Glassy groundmass and Olivine/Glassy groundmass interfaces. Grains that during transport suffered fracturing and percussion have a sharp and angular form: these combined transport mechanisms produce mainly volcanic sandy grains with iso-structural interfaces, such as Pl/Pl, Px/Px, Hbl/Hbl, and, to a lesser extent, Bt/Op and Bt/Glgr interfaces.

Description: Sand and sandstone composition of volcanic origin may be clues to the provenance of the sediments and sedimentary rocks. Volcaniclastic provenance studies contribute significantly to unravel the sediment generation and provenance under investigation that in the Aeolian archipelago comprise preserved units of outcrops dominated by lava flows intercalated with air fall tephras as source rocks. The aim of this paper is the study of the petrographic composition and the textures of beach sands that may be used as a guide for the interpretation of provenance and origin of beach sand(stone)s rich in volcanic debris transported into deeper water. The composition of Aeolian beach deposits defines a single immature petrofacies with a high amount of unweathered glass and mafic minerals. Panarea island is dominated by dacites and new grain categories have been proposed to discriminate this provenance. Surface processes such as mechanical erosion (mass wasting and surface runoff) produce an overestimation of mafic components, with respect to the felsic ones in the beach sand fraction.Supplementary material at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5608950