Sedimentological investigations of active beach sand from Gaddani area, Balochistan, Pakistan

Abstract

Studying sand leads to understand the depositional environment of sandstone; sandstones exhibit variety of sedimentary depositional environments, all of them have different physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. Samples of beach sand from Gaddani beach area, Balochistan, Pakistan were collected in order to understand the beach environment. In addition to field observation of primary sedimentary structures the samples were processed for grain size analysis, chemical, and mineralogical studies. The result of sorting and mineral aggregation shows that the environment has strong energy. All the results of above mentioned analysis lead us to conclude that it is beach environment. The increased concentration and shape of quartz in the samples suggest for it being transported from far away and experienced several depositional cycles. The primary structures affirm the bioturbation and graded bedding mechanisms