Heavy‐mineral suites are used widely in sandstone provenance and are key when connecting source and sink. When characterizing provenance related signatures, it is essential to understand the different factors that may influence a particular heavy‐mineral assemblage for example, chemical weathering or diagenetic processes. Hydrodynamics, causing size‐density sorting, exert major control on the distribution of heavy minerals. Here, we highlight the effect of grain‐size inheritance, essentially the absence of certain grain sizes within a specific heavy‐mineral species, on two distinct types of sediments. Modern deposits from a high‐energy beach in NW Denmark give an analog for heavily reworked sediment, primarily controlled by hydrodynamic processes. In contrast, three Palaeogene turbidite successions in the Eastern Alps were sampled, presenting a more complex history that includes diagenesis. All samples were processed for their heavy‐mineral compositions using Raman spectroscopy, and several techniques applied to determine the effect of grain‐size inheritance. Results show that (a) even within the hydrodynamically well‐sorted beach and placer deposits, evidence of grain‐size inheritance is apparent, and (b) turbidites of variable heavy‐mineral composition show strong effects of grain‐size inheritance for several mineral species. Moreover, considerable intersample contrasts within single turbidite beds are observed. We enforce the importance of understanding grain‐size inheritance, as well as other processes effecting size‐density relations in clastic sediment that go well beyond purely hydrodynamic control of intrasample heavy‐mineral variability.
N2 - Plain Language Summary: Heavy minerals are commonly found within sediments and sedimentary rocks and can tell us from which source regions the sediment may have originated. However, it is important to understand that the type, size, and abundance of particular heavy minerals can change depending on factors such as environmental conditions. The size, shape, and density of the heavy minerals also limits when and where they will settle and/or stay. A lack of big or small grains of a particular heavy mineral in the source rocks dictates the size of the minerals deposited; this is known as grain‐size inheritance. Using both ancient and modern sediment, we are looking for traces of grain‐size inheritance. Surprisingly, in all samples investigated we noted effects of grain‐size inheritance, for different heavy‐mineral types. The modern beach sediments, as expected, show more impact of hydraulic processes, but inherited grain sizes are still apparent. Within the ancient examples, grain‐size inheritance is more obvious, with further variations even observed between samples collected from the same area. Having identified this control on grain size, we can highlight the importance of understanding this effect when analyzing clastic sediments. N2 - Key Points:Understanding factors that can modify a heavy‐mineral assemblage is fundamental in provenance analysis
Heavy minerals of two distinct sedimentary environments were analyzed and compared to their “ideal” hydrodynamically sorted compositions
Several heavy‐mineral species of modern and ancient settings were identified to be influenced by grain‐size inheritance from the source