Black Sands of Nueva Gorgona Beach, Republic of Panama

J. LeBlanc, Geologist

Black sand on a beach results from the erosion of volcanic rocks. These are sedimentary accumulations known as “placer deposits” or, when found in high concentrations of heavy minerals, “beach placer deposits”. Typically, the sand comprises various heavy minerals (iron rich and dark), such as tourmaline (lithium, magnesium, iron, aluminum), garnet (iron, manganese, magnesium), rutile (titanium), ilmenite (iron, titanium), zircon (radioactive), monazite (radioactive elements cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, thorium), but mostly magnetite (iron), which erode and fracture into tiny particles. These magnetite particles become the shiny, heavy, black sand found on the beach, which can be treacherously hot to walk on, especially at midday. When analyzed (not the case in this guide), black sands may have reasonable concentrations of titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), zirconium (Zr), cadmium (Cd), hafnium (Hf), and even gold (Au). They can also be enriched in rare earths and contain significant amounts of uranium and thorium radionuclides.


KAYNAK

https://www.academia.edu/124670278/Black_Sands_of_Nueva_Gorgona_Beach_Republic_of_Panama

Yorumlar

Bu blogdaki popüler yayınlar

Geological Methods in Mineral Exploration and Mining / Roger Marjoribanks

Baz metal yataklarının uzaktan algılama ile belirlenmesine bir örnek: Hakkari güneyi…

Tectonic Triggers for Postsubduction Magmatic-Hydrothermal Gold Metallogeny in the Late Cenozoic Anatolian Metallogenic Trend, Türkiye

Çatalçam (Soma-Manisa) Au-Pb-Zn-Cu cevherleşmesinin jeolojik, mineralojikpetrografik ve sıvı kapanım özellikleri

Re-assessing the European lithium resource potential – A review of hard-rock resources and metallogeny