Journal of Coastal Research

SI 50

599 - 603

ICS2007 (Proceedings)

Australia

ISSN 0749.0208

Interpreting beach sedimentary dynamics between Tria and Sines (SW Portugal) using heavy minerals and textural analysis
P. Miranda, C. Jesus, C. Bernardes and F. Rocha
Departamento de Geocincias, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus universitrio de Santiago 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal pmiranda@geo.ua.pt cjesus@geo.ua.pt cbernardes@geo.ua.pt frocha@geo.ua.pt

ABSTRACT MIRANDA, P.; JESUS, C.; BERNARDES, C. AND ROCHA, F., 2007. Interpreting beach sedimentary dynamics between Tria and Sines (SW Portugal) using heavy minerals and textural analysis. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 599 603. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208 Knowledge of the littoral Tria-Sines (SW of Portugal) sand grain-size distribution and transparent heavy minerals rests on the study of 195 samples collected from beachface, berm, dune and sea-cliffs. The results show the dominance of coarse sand and a heavy mineral suite composed by tourmaline, muscovite, andaluzite, biotite, amphiboles, staurolite, pyroxenes, silimanite and kyanite. The textural sediment characteristics allow the definition of three different littoral long shore sectors: north, central and south. In the north sector there is a north-south increment in grain-size linked with clear evidences of a bioclastic supply from intertidal benthonic macrofauna communities. In the central sector, sea-cliffs are the source of heterometric sediments to the beach (from coarse sand to silt sized particles). In the southern sector, sea-cliffs also represent an important sediment source, nourishing the beach system with fine sands. The heavy mineral composition shows high quantities of mica close to the Sado inlet (north sector) and to the sea-cliffs (south sector). On the other hand, in the south sector near the Sines subvolcanic massif outcrops, some pyroxene and amphibole enrichment was detected. From these results, it was possible to deduce various sediment sources for this littoral area: inner shelf; Mio-Pliocene sea cliffs; Sines subvolcanic massif; bivalves communities existing in the Tria peninsula; and Sado estuary. ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Sediment dynamics, textural analysis, heavy minerals.

INTRODUCTION
There are not many detailed studies regarding the littoral between Tria and Sines. Textural characteristics and sedimentary dynamics have been studied in a general way by QUEVAUVILLER (1987) and GOMES (1992) and the recent work of GAMA (2005) tries to explain the sedimentary dynamics using numerical models. This paper aims to contribute to a better knowledge of the sedimentary dynamics including the identification of the main sedimentary sources of this littoral sector. This littoral area extends along 63 km between Tria and Sines in the southwest of Portugal. It is bounded at the northern end by the Sado estuary inlet and to the south by the Sines cape (Figure 1). There are two important elevations: the Arrbida Mountain to the north and the Grndola Mountain to the east. The first extends westwards to the Espichel Cape; the second separates the Sado basin from the littoral basins. The littoral runoff discharges directly to the study beaches or to adjacent coastal lagoons. Sometimes these watercourses flow to the sea: in the winter after a heavy rain period or when some lagoons are artificially open. Dunes are present in a great part of this littoral stretch. Seacliffs occur in the central and extreme south areas being occasionally covered by older dunes.

Geological Settings
The continental region is dominated by the Tejo-Sado Tertiary deposits as well as by the Paleozoic basement of South-Portuguese and Ossa-Morena Zones. In the two mountains, Mesozoic deposits are present: in the Arrbida Mountain they are absolutely predominant; in the Grndola Mountain they occur in the sea side of the elevation, while in the continental side Paleozoic basement outcropped (CARVALHO, 1992). The Sado river basin developments over those three types of deposits and the littoral streams extend only on the Tertiary and Mesozoic deposits. Outcrops in the sea-cliffs are tertiary age. The Sines cape corresponds to a Late Cretaceous intrusive complex.

Oceanographic Settings
This coastal area is exposed to energetic north Atlantic swells. According to COSTA et al., (2001), the dominant wave directions are from NW and W (97%), with the SW direction representing only 3% of the observations. Waves with heights of 1-2 m and periods of 5-7 s represent almost half of the observations (49% and 44%, respectively). However, during storm events (3 % of the observations) waves are as high as 5-6 m (in exceptional events

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can exceed 10 m high) and peak periods of 9-13 s. From Sines to Troia there is an increasing shelter effect caused by Espichel Cape that decreases the wave energy and rotates the angle of the NW wave approach (QUEVAUVILLER, 1987).

slides were mounted with Canada balsam. Finally, the heavy mineral specimens were identified and counted under the petrographic microscope.

RESULTS Textural Analysis

Beach sands present a mean diameter of 0.79 (coarse sands) and a sorting of 0.56 (moderately well sorted sands). The distribution curves are symmetric (0.05) and mesokurtic (1.02). Sea-cliff sediments have a high percentage of the < 63 m fraction (between 6% and 22%), which did not allow use of Gradistat software to determine their textural parameters. Even so, in the distribution curves it was possible to observe the existence of bimodal and trimodal samples. The respective modes were in the range -2.0 to 3.5 . The textural parameters values tend to vary along the littoral arc and this allowed the identification of three sectors (Figure 2). Alongshore, a southward mean size increase tendency is evident in all morphological units. This trend is more evident in the beach sands (beachface - BF and berm - B) than in the dune sands (D). In the northern and central sector, these sands have about the same mean size, but in the southern sector dune sands are finer than beach sands. Southwards, beach sands show a shift in the skewness from negative to positive. Dune sands have a symmetrical trend in the northern sector and a positive to negative shift in the southern sector. Sand sorting shows a slight decrease on the extreme sections, for all morphological units. In the central and northern sections, beach sands tend to be mesokurtic. In the southern section beachface sands tend to be platykurtic while the berm sand shows a leptokurtic tendency. In the northern sector, dune and beach samples have the same trend. On the other hand, dune deposits show no clear trend.

100000

120000
#

140000 Setubal

bid Arra
160000

in unta a Mo Tria

Sa do Es tu ary
160000
#

Espichel Cape

Comporta Beach

Atlantic Ocean

Portugal

140000

140000

Aberta Nova Beach Melides Lagoon

Grandola Mountain

St Andre Lagoon

120000

120000

0 100000

10 Kilometers 120000

Sines
#

140000

Quaternary (Sand, sandstones and conglomerates) Tertiary (Sandstones and conglomerates) Mesozoic (Calcareous and marls) Mesozoic (Gabbros and Diorites) Paleozoic (Greywackes and schists)

Figure 1. Location and geology of the study area.

Heavy Minerals
In the Tria-Sines littoral, the percentage of heavy minerals in the studied sands is 0.67 weight %. There were identified and counted 16 species of transparent heavy minerals. From these there were considered only the most representative minerals (minerals having mean frequency higher than 0.5 %). This condition was set to simplify and highlight the information given by the main mineral species. Thus, the percentage values were recalculated considering only 9 transparent minerals, that match this criteria: Tourmaline - 38,15 %, Muscovite - 22,80 %, Andalusite - 13,70 %, Biotite - 9,63 %, Amphibole - 5,37 %, Staurolite - 5,19 %, Pyroxene - 2,31 %, Sillimanite - 2,03 % and Kyanite - 0,81 % (Table 1). When separating the analysis according to the studied mineralogical fractions (1-2; 2-3), only Muscovite and Andalusite show different behaviour. If the data are separated according to the morphological unit, then it is possible to conclude that there are no differences between beachface (BF) and berm (B). Nevertheless, there are many differences between beach (beachface and berm) and seacliffs (SC), especially concerning Tourmaline, Muscovite and Andalusite contents. Vasco da Gama beach (VG) presents high percentages of Amphiboles and Pyroxenes. In order to identify the mineralogical assemblages, several principal component analysis based on different sets of data were carried out: one set with all data, two sets representing the two studied fractions (1-2 and 2-3 ) and three sets representing the three studied morphologic units (beachface, berm and sea-cliffs).

METHODS
Along the study area, 72 profiles have been selected. In each profile three samples were taken from: beachface (at the middle tide point BASCOM (1951) reference point), berm (at the middle of the berm) and dune (in the sea side). With the purpose of identifying possible sedimentary sources, eleven more samples were collected. Ten samples were taken from the unconsolidated sediments of the sea-cliffs and one was taken from the Vasco da Gama beach (a pocket beach close to the Sines sub volcanic massif). In the laboratory, samples were disintegrated and the fine fraction (<63 m) was separated by the wet sieving method. The two resulting fractions were weighed and the percentage of the fine fraction determined. To perform textural analysis, 100 g of the coarse fraction were dry sieved at a half intervals (3.5 to -2.0). The weight of each fraction was computed using the Gradistat program (BLOTT and PYE, 2001), which allowed derivation of the logarithmic textural parameters of FOLK and WARD (1957) (mean-size, sorting, skewness and kurtosis). In addition, 1 kg of the initial coarse fraction of beach sands was sieved and the 1-2 and 2-3 fractions were obtained. These two fractions were separated by density using Sodium Politungstate (SPT) heavy liquid (d~2.82 g/cm3). The heavy fractions carbonates were eliminated by the addition of hydrochloric acid. Afterwards, heavy fractions were quartered and

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Table 1: Percentages of the main heavy minerals.

Mineral Tourmaline Muscovite Andalusite Biotite Amphiboles Staurolite Pyroxenes Sillimanite Kyanite Total 38,15 22,80 13,70 9,63 5,37 5,19 2,31 2,03 0,81 1-2 39,09 25,28 11,07 9,24 5,85 4,16 2,48 2,01 0,83 2- 3 36,88 19,46 17,25 10,16 4,74 6,58 2,07 2,06 0,79 BF 40,46 17,40 16,06 10,04 5,52 4,71 2,25 2,43 1,13 B 45,11 15,57 15,36 7,51 4,51 7,13 1,95 2,16 0,70 SC 20,10 52,92 6,72 13,03 2,77 1,60 1,04 1,20 0,61 VG 0,57 1,15 19,16 55,56 22,99 -

Component 1 for all the sets allow us to distinguish two opposite mineralogical assemblages: (A) Tourmaline, Staurolite and Andalusite; (B) Biotite and Muscovite. The opposition of these two assemblages is easily understood taking into account that data are expressed in percentages. Component 2 allows us to identify an assemblage (C) always constituted by Amphiboles and Pyroxenes, which constantly present a strong correlation between them.

DISCUSSION Textural Analysis

One of the main characteristics observed in the northern sector is the variation of the mean grain size which, along the entire Tria peninsula and towards south, becomes coarser. This characteristic is present in beach (beachface and berm) and dune sands, this later less significantly. A similar trend was identified by QUEVAUVILLER (1987), GOMES (1992) and GAMA (2005), and is attributed to the fact Espichel Cape shelters this littoral stretch. Wave energy is lower near the cape, but increases progressively towards south as the shelter effect decreases. The same argument is presented by KOMAR (1976) for several parts of the world with similar characteristics. Another characteristic observed in the north sector is the presence of a bioclastic population in the coarser tail of the grain size distribution curve. These bioclasts are quite abundant in the Tria area and their percentage decrease towards Comporta (the same happens to the percentages of carbonates determined by GAMA (2005)). In the same way there is a shift from negative skewness to symmetrical curves. This fact can be used to correlate the bioclastic population to the negative skewness. The singular behaviour of the beach face textural parameters (increase of mean grain size and the change in the asymmetry signal) in the first 4 km, can be due to the presence of sand-banks in the ebb delta of the Sado estuary. A careful analysis of the grain size distributions along the first kilometres of the beachface reveals the existence of a second population of terrigenous sediment that could originate from those adjacent sand-banks. Besides that, in this zone the carbonates percentage presents a maximum, corresponding to a significant increase of deposited bioclasts, which increases the coarser population. The boundary between north and central sectors is mainly due to the definition of the area where these features become absent. In central sector the textural parameters seems to be closer to those of a log-normal distribution. This fact suggests the hypothesis that sediments of this sector are those closer of the theoretical situation, where a unique hydrodynamic agent acts over a sedimentary deposit and without intervention of external sedimentary sources. However, it seems this is not what is happening in this sector. Beaches are limited by sea-cliffs with 60 m high and runoff marks and small alluvial fans mixed with beach sands are visible as well. It seems evident that sedimentary supply from the sea-cliffs to the beaches exists. GAMA (2005), when studying the Aberta Nova beach (close to Fontanhas stream), shows that sea-cliffs erosion feeds the adjacent beaches with material having a compatible grain size (table 4.4, samples A4 to A8). According to GAMA (2005), during storm periods the beaches of this sector suffer significant sand remobilisation (83% of the removal ratio from the emerged beach profile), and when beach recovery happens it will only be deposited sediments which are in equilibrium with local dynamics.

Only components with eigenvalues higher than one, an identical projection of two or more minerals or evidencing an opposite behaviour regarding a certain variable were considered (CASCALHO, 2000). The minerals considered to form a group have coordinates with absolute values higher than 0.5.

North Sector

Central Sector
Mean size

South Sector

2,0 Mean size 1,0 0,0 -1,0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Distance from Tria (km)
BF B D

Sorting
1,1 0,9 Sorting 0,7 0,5 0,3 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Distance from Tria (km)
BF B D

Skewness
0,6 Skewness 0,4 0,2 0,0 -0,2 -0,4 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Distance from Tria (km)
BF B D

Kurtosis
2,0 Kurtosis 1,5 1,0 0,5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

BF B D

Tria

Distance from Tria (km)

Sines

Figure 2. Longitudinal variation of textural parameters.

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Regarding the beachface, the boundary between central and south sectors is located close to the Melides lagoon, while for the berm that same boundary lies close to the Santo Andr lagoon. Based upon the textural analysis undertaken here these lagoons do not seem to be the sedimentary source for the beach. This is probably due to the fact their communication with the sea is restricted to an artificial opening which, in the case of Santo Andr lagoon, is active annually during spring. This entrance stays open during only one month. However, JESUS et al. (2005) find the geochemical signature of the Santo Andr lagoon in the fine fraction (<63 m) of the sediments in the beaches adjacent to the lagoon. The southern sector is characterised by a change in the grain size parameters, excepting mean diameter. The presence of a second population of fine sand is responsible for this change and by the unmodified mean diameter values, which otherwise would increase southwards. This fine sand population is detected close to lagoons area, increasing its presence southwards. In the last 8 km one clearly detects the bimodal distribution of the sands. Thus, it is evident the existence of a sedimentary source capable of supplying fine sand to the beach in sufficient quantity so that the sea does not remove grain size classes that are in dynamic disequilibrium. LUZ et al. (2004) define the Sines cape as a barrier to the sedimentary littoral transport. This fact confines the sedimentary source to the southern 8 km of the entire littoral stretch and that source would have the role of supplying fine sands to the beach. Through cartographic comparisons and aerial photographs, GAMA (2005) identified strong sea cliff erosion located at the southern end of this littoral section. This model also shows littoral drift from south to north, originated by the effects of the storms coming from southwest. However, textural analysis done by GAMA (2005) does not include any evidence of transport on the beach. This way, the fine sand population identified in this study was not observed by that author. According to FERNANDES (1984), in this area storms are responsible for the movement of appreciable volumes of sands (200 m3) for each longitudinal metre of beach. Thus, the littoral drift associated with storms redistributes the fine sand population further north. Together with wave energy it causes a progressive decrease of the population until it disappears completely close to Melides lagoon.

SC

SC

SC

SC

VG

100 80 60 % 40 20 0 0 Tria A B C

10

20

30

40

50

Distance from Tria (km)

60 Sines

Figure 3. Longitudinal variation of the three mineralogical assemblages. SC Sea cliffs; VG Vasco da Gama Beach. Besides the existence of a predominant assemblage, the south area (from Melides to Sines) is marked by the presence of two more assemblages: assemblage B (Micas) is supplied by the MioPliocene sea cliffs that continue to be weathered; assemblage C is constituted by the mineralogical signal of the Sines sub-volcanic complex (Amphiboles and Pyroxenes main composition of Vasco da Gama beach sample). POMBO (2004) also correlates this assemblage (found in the inner shelf in their work) to the mineralogical influence of the Sines sub-volcanic complex. Both assemblages have their maximum expression in the south edge of the littoral and their importance decreases northwards until Melides. Thus, in this sector it is possible to identify a littoral drift phenomenon from south to north, which is predominant at a large time scale. In the northern area (Tria peninsula), mica deposition occurs (assemblage B) and this can have two origins: the Sado estuary or sea cliffs located in the central and south areas of the littoral Tria-Sines arc. In this later case, micas initially are deposited on the beach and after they are removed by waves, becoming available to be transported northwards due to littoral drift. In both hypotheses the deposition of micas in the Tria peninsula occurs due to the decrease of energetic conditions.

CONCLUSIONS
In this study, it has been possible to identify three different littoral sectors within the study region through longitudinal variations of textural parameters: (1) north sector, from Tria do Comporta; (2) central sector, from Comporta to Melides lagoon; and (3) south sector, from Melides lagoon to Sines. Three mineralogical assemblages can be identified: (A) Tourmaline, Staurolite and Andalusite; (B) Biotite and Muscovite; and (C) Amphiboles and Pyroxenes. Based on sediment texture and mineralogy, it is possible to identify several sedimentary sources feeding the beaches of TriaSines littoral trench: (1) inner shelf; (2) Mio-Pliocene sea cliffs; (3) Sines sub-volcanic complex; (4) bivalves communities existing in the Tria peninsula; and (5) Sado estuary. The existence of littoral drift at a large time scale, predominantly from south to north, also seems to be highlighted by tracer heavy minerals (assemblage C and the movement further north of assemblage B) as well as by the behaviour of the grain size populations (mainly the secondary fine grained population present in south sector).

Heavy Minerals
Figure 3 shows the longitudinal variations of the three identified mineralogical assemblages. Assemblage A is predominant in almost the entire littoral stretch with the exception of some samples of the north and south edges. Assemblage B, in opposition of A, is almost inexistent in central area, while it is abundant in the samples of the north and south sectors. Assemblage C is generally present along the entire trench with low percentages of occurrence (13% maximum), but in the south area and towards the Sines sub volcanic complex its abundance increases on the last 10 km. POMBO (2004) finds this assemblage in the inner shelf that is adjacent to Praia do Norte in Sines, suggesting the possibility of sedimentary exchanges between the inner shelf and the beach. GAMA (2005) suggests the inner shelf that is associated to Praia do Norte retains and it is capable of supplying during short periods of time large amounts of sand. This sand can feed longitudinal transport and ensure the redistribution of the sediments along the entire arc.

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LITERATURE CITED
BASCOM, W., 1951. The relationship between sand size and beachface slope. Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 32, 866-874. BLOTT, S. J. and PYE, K., 2001. Gradistat: a grain size distribution and statistics package for the analysis of unconsolidated sediments. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 26, 12371248. CARVALHO, D., 1992. Carta geolgica de Portugal. Lisboa, Portugal: Servios Geolgicos de Portugal, scale 1:500,000, 2 sheets. CASCALHO, J., 2000. Mineralogia dos sedimentos arenosos da margem continental portuguesa. Lisbon, Portugal: University of Lisbon, Ph.D. thesis, 400p. COSTA, M., SILVA, R., VITORINO, J., 2001. Contribuio para o estudo do clima de agitao martima na costa portuguesa. 2as Jornadas Portuguesas de Engenharia Costeira e Porturia. Associao Internacional de Navegao. Sines. FERNANDES, F., 1984. Estudo da evoluo da Praia do Norte em Sines. Anais do Instituto Hidrogrfico, 5, 107-110. FOLK, R. and WARD, W., 1957. Brazos river bar: a study in the significance of grain size parameters. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 27, 3-26. GAMA, C., 2005. Dinmica de sistemas sedimentares do litoral ocidental portugus a sul do cabo Espichel. vora, Portugal: University of vora, Ph.D. thesis, 359p.

GOMES, N., 1992. Dinmica dunar no arco litoral Tria-Sines (Portugal). Lisbon, Portugal: University of Lisbon, Master's thesis, 121p. JESUS, C., INCIO, M., FERREIRA DA SILVA, E., OLIVEIRA, A. and ROCHA, F., 2005. Interpreting beach sedimentary dynamics between Tria and Sines (SW Portugal) using heavy minerals and textural analysis. Proceedings of Congresso de Geoqumica dos Pases de Lngua Portuguesa VIII (Aveiro, Portugal), pp. 603-606. KOMAR, P.D., 1976. Beach Processes and Sedimentation. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 429p. LUZ, C., RODRIGUES, A., TABORDA, R., OLIVEIRA, A., DUARTE, J. and MORGADO, A., 2004. The Sines Cape and its influence on the littoral sediment transport (Sines, Portugal). Journal of Coastal Research, SI39 (in press). POMBO, J., CASCALHO, J., RODRIGUES, A., TABORDA, R. and OLIVEIRA, A., 2004. The Sines sub-volcanic intrusive complex: imprint on the inner shelf sedimentary cover (Sines, Portugal). Journal of Coastal Research, SI39 (in press). QUEVAUVILLER, P., 1987. Evolution and stabilization of headlandbay beaches. Journal of Shoreline Management, 3, 269-284.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Luis Serrano Pinto and Joo Cascalho for the help in translating and reviewing this paper.

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 50, 2007