Caracterización de las arenas y arcillas minerales de los depósitos de canal y planicie de inundación del río Portuguesa, Venezuela

Autor: Juan Carrera, Zuly Millán Boadas, Orlando José González Clemente, Maximiliano Bezada Díaz
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2014
Předmět:
Zdroj: Investigaciones Geográficas, Iss 85, Pp 18-32 (2014)
ISSN: 2448-7279
0188-4611
Popis: ResumenEste trabajo investiga la relación entre la mineralogía de sedimentos fluviales, su área fuente y el clima, en un tramo del río Portuguesa en los llanos centro-occidentales venezolanos. Para este estudio se recolectaron los sedimentos más antiguos depositados en la planicie aluvial y los más recientes depositados en el canal actual. Las arenas fueron separadas por tamizado en seco y las arcillas por Bouyoucos (1962); la mineralogía se determinó por Difracción de Rayos X. Los resultados indican que las arenas están compuestas principalmente por cuarzo, formando arenas maduras o cuarzo-arenitas. Su origen se relaciona con la desintegración físico-mecánica de las rocas del orógeno andino y la Cordillera del Interior, probablemente durante el Pleistoceno Tardío. Las arcillas están constituidas por cuarzo y caolinita, con cantidades menores de ilita, muscovita, clorita, vermiculita y montmorillonita. Se postula un origen detrítico para algunos de estos minerales ya que la caolinita, vermiculita y montmorillonita, también pueden ser neoformadas a partir de la alteración química experimentada por las micas y feldespatos durante el Pleistoceno Tardío-Holoceno. Se concluye que el origen y composición de los sedimentos de estos depósitos muestran estrecha relación con su área fuente y las condiciones climáticas que prevalecieron durante el Cuaternario Tardío.AbstractPortuguesa river floodplain is one of the largest systems in the region of central western Venezuelan llanos. This sub-Orinoco River basin covers an area of 59 500km2 which means about 6.5% of the country. The basin includes two tectonic provinces, and the river and its tributaries flow through a geological mosaic composed of rocks different ages and mineralogical composition. The interest of this paper is to examine the mineralogical composition of sands and clays in the former and present sediments of the lower basin of the river and document the relationship between the mineralogy of river sediment source area and climate variations in this region during the Late Quaternary. Most of the tributaries of the Portuguese river transport sediments from the southern and southeastern ranges of the Andes and the Interior cordillera from the Caribbean range; other small rivers originate and transport sediments from the floodplain and from the oldest foothill terraces. The methodology consisted of collecting ancient sediments deposited in the floodplain and the current channel. For this study, 40 samples of sands associated with different pools of load current bed Portuguesa River and 23 samples of clay from the oldest sediments were collected; by core drilling on bar meanders and paleomeanders in the flood plain of the river. The sand fraction was separated by dry sieving and clays by the Bouyoucos (1962) method with some modifications. Mineralogical analyzes of both fractions was determined by X-ray diffraction for the case of sand the analysis was performed only on whole sample and clays were subjected to three treatments (total, ethylene glycol and heated sample at 550°) to detecting the presence of swelling clays. The results indicate that the sands are mainly composed of quartz, forming mature sand or quartz-arenites with lesser amounts of minerals such as chlorite, muscovite, calcite and albite, among others. Which identified peaks in the diffractograms quartz infer high crystallinity of quartz (3.3°) and a peak of lower intensity (4.2°). Meanwhile, in the clay fraction 13 crystalline mineral phases were determined mainly predominating well crystallized quartz (3.3°) and the well-crystallized kaolin (7.1°), illite (10 A°) and muscovite (5.0 A°). The origin of the sands is mainly related with the physical-mechanical disintegration of the rocks of the Venezuelan South Andean Cordillera orogen and the Caribbean range during arid climatic conditions that prevailed at the end of the Late Pleistocene and factors such as transport distance, residence time, pedogenesis, chemical weathering intensity and the source area. One detrital origin for quartz, illite and muscovite reported in the clay fraction, the origin of minerals kaolinite can be inherited from older or soil deposits associated with these fluvial sediments is postulated. However, as kaolinite and montmorillonite, vermiculite, neoformation may have originated from the chemical change experienced by the mica and feldspar, associated with wetter weather conditions, environment and intensely washed acidity conditions that characterize this tropical region. The influence of climate highlighted in the mineralogical evolution of sedimentary deposits reported in this study and suggests that the sediments were deposited from the Early to Late Holocene, under conditions similar to today's most humid tropical climate. It is concluded that the origin and composition of the sands and clays analyzed mainly show a close relationship with the source area of the sediments and factors such as the distance of sediment transport, the residence time in the channel and floodplain, the intensity of chemical weathering and climatic conditions that prevailed during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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