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Provenance significance of quartz grain microtextures in the Salina Cruz and Puerto Angel beaches, Oaxaca State, Mexican Pacific

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Abstract

We studied the microtextures of quartz grains recovered from the Salina Cruz and Puerto Angel beaches in the Oaxaca State, Mexican Pacific coast. Quartz grains in both beaches are angular to sub-rounded in shape, revealed short and long transport with heterogeneous source. The mechanical features like conchoidal fractures, parallel striations/ridges, percussion marks, shock-melted grains, and meandering ridges were abundant, which indicates high energy in the beach environment. Rare microtexture slickenside surface suggested shear zones adjacent to fault. We identified microtextures of chemical origin such as silica globules, solution pits, and crystal overgrowth that indicated the diagenetic environment in a silica-saturated zone. The elongated depression, adhering particles, and medium relief revealed high influence of mechanical/chemical origin.

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(Source: Carta Geologica; scale 1:1 000 000)

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Acknowledgements

Ramos-Vázquez is thankful to CONACyT for the postdoctoral scholarship (CVU: 595593). We extend our sincere thanks to Laura E. Gómez Lizárraga for SEM study. We are grateful to Carlos Linares-López and Teodoro Hernández Treviño for mineral identification. We extend our sincere thanks to our laboratory assistants Ronquillo Arvizu Arturo, Ricardo Martínez Domínguez, Susana Santiago Perez, and Eduardo Morales la Garza, for their assistance during this study. We are also grateful to the ICML Institutional project (no. 616) for providing transport facilities during sample collection. This research work was partly completed during the sabbatical period of JSAA at the Bharathidasan University, which was approved by DGAPA (PASPA), UNAM.

Funding

This work was supported financially by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT; A1-S-21287) and Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica (PAPIIT; IN107020) projects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. División de Geociencias Aplicadas, Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica Y Tecnológica (IPICYT), Camino a La Presa San José 2055, San Luis Potosí, 78216, México

    Mayla A. Ramos-Vázquez & Sanjeet K. Verma

  2. Unidad de Procesos Oceánicos Y Costeros, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar Y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de Mexico, 04510, CDMX, México

    John S. Armstrong-Altrin

  3. Department of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli, 620024, Tamil Nadu, India

    John S. Armstrong-Altrin & Rathinam Arthur James

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  1. Mayla A. Ramos-Vázquez
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  2. Sanjeet K. Verma
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  3. John S. Armstrong-Altrin
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Contributions

Mayla A. Ramos-Vázquez participated in field work and prepared the samples for SEM analysis. Sanjeet K. Verma contributed to reviewing the manuscript. John S. Armstrong-Altrin examined and interpreted the SEM images. Rathinam Arthur James interpreted the SEM images and reviewed the manuscript for submission. All authors contributed equally to writing, reviewing, and editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to John S. Armstrong-Altrin.

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Ramos-Vázquez, M.A., Verma, S.K., Armstrong-Altrin, J.S. et al. Provenance significance of quartz grain microtextures in the Salina Cruz and Puerto Angel beaches, Oaxaca State, Mexican Pacific. Arab J Geosci 16, 121 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11185-8

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