A comparison of mineral magnetic, geochemical and mineralogical techniques for compositional studies of glacial diamictons

Abstract

Data from heavy mineral analysis, X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and X‐ray diffractrometry (XRD) are compared with those obtained from mineral magnetic analysis for a range of glacial diamicton samples taken from the Quaternary sequence in the Isle of Man. These data show that the mineral magnetic approach offers a useful means of characterizing glacial sediments for purposes of lithostratigraphic correlation and provenance indication and that the magnetic data are of a comparable quality to those obtained from standard applications of the more traditional techniques. The heavy mineral and XRD data indicate that little post‐depositional chemical alteration of the detrital composition of the sediments has taken place. The mineral magnetic, heavy mineral and XRF analysis suggests both similar lithostratigraphic relationships between the various diamicton units and consistent indications of their likely provenance. These are consistent with published, field‐based, stratigraphic relationships of the same sediments and ice‐flow directions in the Irish Sea Basin during the Devensian.