Mineralogy of beach and dune sands of Morgim-Arambol Beach on Goa Coast

Abstract

Mineralogic studies of the sand of dune and beach at Morgim-Arambol indicate that opaques, garnet, staurolite, epidote, chlorite, bluish-green hornblende, tourmaline, augite-diopside, hypersthene and zircon are the principal heavy minerals. Three mineral associations are recognized on the basis of their relative abundance and distribution on the beach: (1) garnet-epidote-staurolite rich association, (2) garnet-epidote-staurolite-chlorite rich association, and (3) opaque-garnet-zircon rich association. As the sediments are texturally similar throughout the beach and as there is no marked areal mineralogical sorting of the size, shape and specific gravity, this mineral distribution appears to be controlled by the variations in source rocks in the drainage basins of the rivers.