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Mineralogy and geochemistry of the Ossa lake Complex sediments, Southern Cameroon: implications for paleoweathering and provenance

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A Correction to this article was published on 22 March 2021

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Abstract

This study investigates the provenance, paleoweathering, and paleoclimate of the Ossa lake sediments, based on the mineralogy and geochemistry data. Ossa lake sediments are characterized by silt and clay with high content of total organic carbon (TOC). Clay minerals are identified as kaolinite and illite types. Other dominant minerals identified are quartz, zircon, rutile, goethite, gibbsite, feldspar, and accessory vivianite. The major, trace, and rare earth element concentrations indicate that the sediments were derived from felsic rocks, such as gneisses and granitoids. The tectonic discrimination diagrams revealed an active margin setting. Weathering indices such as the chemical index of alteration (CIA), the plagioclase index of alteration (PIA), and chemical index of weathering (CIW) suggest intense chemical weathering in the source area. K2O/Na2O ratio and index of compositional variation (ICV) are consistent with high maturity of the sediments. The mineral assemblages and trace elemental ratios and climatic index “C” of the Ossa Lake sediments suggest a warm to semi-humid climate and deposition in an oxic shallow environment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the crew of the Department of Earth Sciences (University of Yaoundé I) for sedimentological analysis. We are grateful to Carlos Linares at the Institute of Geophysics, UNAM for mineral identification by scanning electron microscope equipped with EDAX spectrometer (SEM-EDS) analysis. The first author also thanks the crew of the Botswana International University of Sciences and Technology (BIUST) for their assistance in data interpretations and the African-German Network of Excellence in Science (AGNES) for granting a Mobility Grant in 2019. The Grant was generously sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, P.O. Box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroon

    Armel Zacharie Ekoa Bessa, Paul-Désiré Ndjigui & Gentry Calistus Fuh

  2. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Unidad de Procesos Oceánicos y Costeros, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito exterior s/n, 04510, México D.F., México

    John S. Armstrong-Altrin

  3. Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, Botswana International University of Sciences and Technology, Private Bag, 16, Palapye, Botswana

    Thierry Bineli Betsi

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  1. Armel Zacharie Ekoa Bessa
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  2. Paul-Désiré Ndjigui
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Correspondence to Armel Zacharie Ekoa Bessa.

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Responsible Editor: Domenico M. Doronzo

The original online version of this article was revised due to a retrospective Open Access cancellation.

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Ekoa Bessa, A.Z., Ndjigui, PD., Fuh, G.C. et al. Mineralogy and geochemistry of the Ossa lake Complex sediments, Southern Cameroon: implications for paleoweathering and provenance. Arab J Geosci 14, 322 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-06591-9

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