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Origin and morphodynamic characterization of river sands, southwestern coast Cameroon: evidence from grain size, heavy minerals, and ilmenite chemistry

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Abstract

For the purpose of characterizing the chemical composition indices of ilmenites from the fluvial system in southwestern Cameroon, electron probe microanalysis of mineral chemistry was carried out on ilmenite grains selected from the collected sediment samples. Previously, various particle size parameters (mean size, standard deviation, kurtosis, and skewness) were applied to the sand fraction to describe textural characteristics and heavy minerals. The study reveals sands with a coarse to medium size trend, with a predominance of coarse, poorly to moderately sorted. These traits point to a high-energy setting. The 0.125–0.063 mm grain size fractions of the sands were used for the recovery of heavy minerals. The occurrence of unstable heavy minerals, such as hornblende, zoisite, garnet, and augite, in these sands denote immature sediments. According to a quantitative evaluation, the main accompanying opaque heavy minerals that may contain ilmenite are zircon and zoisite. The major and minor element compositions of ilmenite, TiO2 (43.75–56.98%; average 48.41%) and FeO (34.31–48.86% (average 43.89%), with MnO (3.06%), V2O5 (2.15%), and Nb2O5 (0.29%) including, indicate composite igneous rock. The Ti/(Ti + Fe) ratio values (0.42 to 0.52) of the samples are characteristic of ferri-ilmenites and hydrated ilmenites which have favorable to the sulfate process for the manufacture of ferrotitanium pigment.

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Acknowledgements

BINELI BETSI Thierry is acknowledged by authors for the EPMA analyses at Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, Botswana University of Science and Technology. Acknowledgement to Enock Embom Christophe for his support in the production of Fig. 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Belinga Belinga Cédric, Akono Daniel Florent, Ashukem Ethel Nkongho & Ekomane Emile

  2. School of Geology and Mining Engineering, University of Ngaoundere, P.O Box: 115, Meiganga, Cameroon

    Bisse Salomon Bertrant & Amaya Adama

  3. Department of Geology, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon

    Bokanda Ekoko Eric

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  1. Belinga Belinga Cédric
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Highlights

• The river sands show coarse grain transported by traction and saltation and indicate high-energy deposition.

• The ferri-ilmenites and hydrated ilmenites from composite rocks denote the low alteration effect.

• The V2O5, Nb2O5, and MnO are the main impurities substituting TiO2 in the structure of the ilmenites studied.

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Cédric, B.B., Bertrant, B.S., Adama, A. et al. Origin and morphodynamic characterization of river sands, southwestern coast Cameroon: evidence from grain size, heavy minerals, and ilmenite chemistry. Arab J Geosci 17, 115 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-024-11919-2

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