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Significance and origin of surface textures on broken sand grains in deep‐sea sediments
Author(s) -
KRINSLEY D. H.,
McCOY F. W.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
sedimentology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.494
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1365-3091
pISSN - 0037-0746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3091.1977.tb01920.x
Subject(s) - geology , breakage , deep sea , aeolian processes , grain size , drilling , mineralogy , geochemistry , geomorphology , oceanography , composite material , materials science , metallurgy
The surface textures of fine sand particles from the Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 39 have been studied via scanning electron microscopy. A large portion of the coarsest fraction of these grains from deep sea cores were formerly fragments of larger sand‐sized grains that had been mechanically broken. Surface textures characteristic of previous aeolian and subaqueous environments were preserved in fragments broken from the original larger grain surfaces, thus making palaeo‐environmental reconstruction possible. Previously, characteristic mechanical markings had not been observed on deep sea sands; the momentum of grain to grain collisions with respect to fine sands is generally insufficient to initiate mechanical breakage.