Abstract
Detailed geochemical and clay mineralogical investigations were carried out on bed sediments from upper Godavari river of peninsular India. The results suggest that these sediments are mainly derived from weathering of basaltic rocks of Deccan volcanic province. Strong relationship between Fe2O3 and TiO2 is attributed to their co-occurrence in weathering resistant minerals and/or scavenging of Ti by Fe oxy-hydroxides during weathering of basalts. The concentrations of Na2O, K2O and MgO in these upper Godavari river sediments are relatively less compared to parent basalt. The abundance of minor elements like V, Cr, Cu and Zn shows significant scatter within the range of Deccan basalts.Vanadium and nickel shows significant correlation with Fe2O3 due to their association with iron minerals or their sequestration with iron oxy-hydroxides. Higher Zn concentrations at some locations of Godavari river may have been due to anthropogenic contamination. The REE pattern is greatly influenced by the degree of source rock weathering. Light rare earth elements (LREE) show greater fractionation compared to the heavy rare earth elements (HREE) during weathering and transportation. Strong positive Ce-anomaly in some sediment samples suggests oxidizing conditions of deposition. Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) varies significantly from 37.01 to 60.16, indicating large spatial variability in the intensity of chemical weathering of Deccan basalts. Low CIA values are observed in samples that are enriched in CaO probably due to semi-arid climate which facilitates CaCO3 precipitation and restricts chemical weathering.
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Vuba, S., Ahmad, S.M. & Anipindi, N.R. Geochemical and mineralogical studies in recent clastic sediments from upper Godavari river in peninsular India. J Geol Soc India 86, 107–114 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-015-0286-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-015-0286-4