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Textural and Heavy Minerals Characterization of Coastal Sediments in Ibeno and Eastern Obolo Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State – Nigeria

Clement E Bassey, Aniefiok E. Ite*, Ekpedeme R. Asuaiko*, Emmanuella E. Aidoko

Department of Chemistry, Akwa Ibom State University, P.M.B. 1167, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, NigeriaDepartment of Geology, Akwa Ibom State University, P. M. B. 1167, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract: Textural characterization and heavy mineral studies of beach sediments in Ibeno and Eastern Obolo Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State were carried out in the present study. The main aim was to infer their provenance, transport history and environment of deposition. Sediment samples were collected at the water–sediment contact along the shoreline at an interval of about 3m. Ten samples were collected from study location 1 (Ibeno Beach) and twelve samples were collected from study location 2 (Eastern Obolo Beach). A total of twenty–two samples were collected from the field and brought to the laboratory for textural and compositional analyses. The results showed that the value of graphic mean size ranged from 1.70Ф to 2.83Ф, sorting values ranged from 0.39Ф – 0.60Ф, skewness values ranged from -0.02 to 0.10 while kurtosis values ranged from 1.02 to 2.46, indicating medium to fine grained and well sorted sediments. This suggested that the sediments have been transported far from their source. Longshore current and onshore–offshore movements of sediment are primarily responsible in sorting of the heavy minerals. The histogram charts for the different samples and standard deviation versus skewness indicated a beach environment of deposition. This implies that the sediments are dominated by one class of grain size; a phenomenon characteristic of beach environments. The heavy mineral assemblages identified in this research work were rutile, zircon, tourmaline, hornblende, apatite, diopside, glauconite, pumpellyite, cassiterite, epidote, garnet, augite, enstatite, andalusite and opaque minerals. The zircon-tourmaline-rutile (ZTR) index ranged from 47.30% to 87.00% with most of the samples showing a ZTR index greater than 50%. These indicated that the sediments were mineralogically sub-mature and have been transported far from their source. The heavy minerals identified are indicative of being products of reworked sediments of both metamorphic (high rank) and igneous (both mafic and sialic) origin probably derived from the basement rocks of the Oban Massif as well as reworked sediments of the Benue Trough. Therefore, findings from the present study indicated that erosion, accretion, and stability of beaches are controlled by strong hydrodynamic and hydraulic processes.

Keywords: coastal sediments, heavy minerals, grain-size analysis, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region

Received July 08, 2019; Revised August 12, 2019; Accepted August 29, 2019

Citation: Clement E Bassey, Aniefiok E. Ite, Ekpedeme R. Asuaiko, Emmanuella E. Aidoko, Textural and Heavy Minerals Characterization of Coastal Sediments in Ibeno and Eastern Obolo Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State – Nigeria. Journal of Geosciences and Geomatics, 7 (4). 191-200. January 2019. doi:10.12691/jgg-7-4-4

1. Introduction

A larger portion of the world's surface including the ocean floor and coastal area is covered with thick deposits of sedimentary particles. The sediments may be derived from offshore and catchments area deposits of the world and evidence was found to suggest that these deposits are being eroded by tidal currents. According to Basu [1], sedimentation is mainly driven by tectonic forces, subordinated by climatic and eustatic forces, and to a minor extent in response to impact processes. The nature of the deposition and their formation is mainly dependent on the distribution of particles of different sizes [2]. Sediment particle size and mineral content are two of the characteristic factors that define erosion potential of sediments. Grain size is the most fundamental property of sediments that affect their entrainment, transport and deposition. Grain size studies of beach sediments therefore provide important information on the sediment provenance, intrinsic properties of sediments, transport history and depositional environment [3,4,5,6]. Over the past decades, heavy minerals in sands have been used in petrogenetic and provenance studies [7,8,9,10,11]. Some researchers have used the relationship between certain heavy minerals or the presence of a particular assemblage of heavy minerals to indicate the original sources of sands. While other researchers have used the characteristics of certain heavy minerals as provenance indicators. Understanding of sedimentary provenance is essential when investigating the origin of sediment and can also provide a rich source of information in sediment–based paleoenvironmental reconstruction [1,5,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Over the years, it has been observed that the complex coastal processes have left their imprints in the sediments and as such, the sedimentology of beach sediments plays a vital role in documenting the depositional history of a region [5,11,17]. In a study, Pettijohn et al. [18] used the heavy minerals to trace sediment transport paths and map the paths to outline sand bodies, as well as find provenance. According to Mazumder [11], sediment transport is commonly associated with erosion, bank undercutting, sandbar formation, aggradation, gullying, plugging, bed form migration and generation of primary sedimentary structures.

Coastal sediments, which have been studied by various researchers around the world [1,2,3,4,7,8,9,10,11,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44], are very important in the provenance studies and/or depositional history of a given region. Over the years, it has been reported that detrital sediments retain a record of eroded crustal material and better understanding of geological history is gleaned from provenance studies [1,27,29]. Size, mineral content and shape of sediment vary at different locations of the same river system, depending on distance traversed by particles, gradient of the river and the geological formation of the river course and catchment area [28]. A better understanding of particle size distribution and the assemblages of heavy minerals in sediment make it possible to effectively locate and use essential minerals to predict their dispersal pattern when they re-enter the natural environment thus giving information about the source of the sediment or provenance and environment of deposition [1,18]. Grain size parameters, which could be seen as an essential tool for classifying sedimentary environments, are required and their mean size has proved to be a useful measure of the speed of the depositing flow [26,45,46]. In the Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, there is paucity of information on the provenance, transport history and environment of deposition of beach sands particularly in Ibeno and Eastern Obolo Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State. Therefore, the present study was conducted to utilize textural parameters obtained from grain size analysis and heavy mineral content of these sediments to infer their provenance, transport history and environment of deposition.

2. Materials and Methodology

2.1. Study Area

The present study was conducted in the coastline of two oil–producing host and oil–rich communities viz Ibeno and Eastern Obolo Local Government Areas in the coastal area of Akwa Ibom State. Akwa Ibom State, which is currently the largest oil–producing state in the Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, is located in the coastal southern part of the country (i.e. South–South geopolitical zone) (Figure 1) [31,47]. Akwa Ibom State (Figure 2) covers a total land area of 8412 km² and lies between latitudes 4°32′N and 5°33′N, and longitudes 7°25′E and 8°25′E [47]. The state is bordered on the east by Cross River State, on the west by Rivers State and Abia State, and on the south by the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost tip of Cross River State. Although the coastline in the present study is endowed with less geomorphic features, it has various management problems such as shoreline erosion, flooding and environmental degradation. The first study location, Ibeno Local Government Area (L.G.A.) occupies the largest Atlantic coastline of more than 129 km in Akwa Ibom State (Figure 2 & Figure 3; 4⁰32′N, 4⁰36′N and 7⁰48′E, 8⁰17′E) and based on data from 2006 Nigeria’s national census [48], it is home to 74, 840 people and ExxonMobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited – Qua Iboe Terminal (QIT) [49]. The second study location, Eastern Obolo L.G.A. is located in the Niger Delta fringe between Imo and Qua Iboe Rivers estuaries and lies between latitudes 4°28′N and 4°53′N and longitudes 7°50′E and 7°55′E. It is bounded in the North by Mkpat Enin L.G.A, North East by Onna L.G.A, West by Ikot Abasi L.G.A., South East by Ibeno L.G.A and in the South by the Atlantic Ocean (Figure 2 & Figure 3). Eastern Obolo L.G.A lies on the coastline of the Qua Iboe River with a landmass of 117.00 km² and based on data from 2006 Nigeria’s National Census [48], it is home to 60,543 people.

The geological information of the study area, Ibeno and Eastern Obolo Beach, indicates that it is part of the coastal plain sediment in Nigeria belonging to the Tertiary Benin Formation. The study area which extends horizontally along the landward/seaward boundary with the Atlantic Ocean is characterized by semi-diurnal tide with a meso-tidal range of 2.4m and a low gradient (<5°). The coastal terrain of Ibeno and Eastern Obolo is characterized by two distinct seasons viz the wet and the dry seasons. The wet or rainy season lasts between eight to nine months starting from mid–march till the end of November. Depending on the area, it is worthy to note that the mean annual rainfall ranges from 2,000mm to 3,000 mm and the wet season is usually interrupted by a short dry period in August. The dry season has a short duration of between the last week of November or early December and lasts till early March. In the present study, the climate in the study area is uniformed due to influence of the adjoining ocean and rainfall is expected every month of the year due to the hot maritime air mass along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Average temperature in the study area ranges from 23°C to 31°C. The vegetation pattern changes from mangrove swamp on the coast to lowland rainforest towards the north. In a recent study, Udoudo et. al [50] reported that the vegetation in Ibeno and Eastern Obolo L.G.As accounts for 50.04% (10615.77 hectares coverage) and 46.49% (4672.53 hectares coverage), respectively.

2.2. Sample Collection

Coastal sediment samples were collected from Ibeno beach and Eastern Obolo beach along Atlantic Ocean coastal area of Akwa Ibom State during various missions realized during July 2017 and June 2018. Samples were collected at the water–sediment contact along the shoreline at an interval of about 3m. The coordinates of each sampling point was recorded using handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) with a precision of 4 to 5 m. Collected sediment samples were carefully labeled and preserved in polyethylene bags accordingly. Ten samples were collected from study location 1 (Ibeno Beach) and twelve samples were collected from study location 2 (Eastern Obolo Beach). A total of twenty–two samples collected from the field were transported to Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) Sedimentology Laboratory for textural and compositional analyses.

2.3. Procedure for Grain–Size Analysis

In the laboratory, debris and dead shells were separated from sediments and the mixed saline content was removed from the beach sediments by washing with water. Consequently, the sediment samples were dried in an oven at 60oC to remove any moisture content present. 50mg of each of the 22 dried samples was taken by conning and quartering method in order to subject them to standard method of sieving using stacked sieve sets with a mesh opening of 2.00 1.00, 0.50, 0.25, 0.125, 0.063 and 0.043 mm. The nominal sieve opening allows for better discrimination of the sub–populations and a receiving pan was placed under these set of sieves to collect the finest fractions. The set-up was covered with a lid and the grain size distribution was carried out by using a Ro-Tap sieve shaker (at 15 minutes interval). The fraction retained in each sieve and that of the pan after shaking, was weighed and recorded. Weight retained in each sieve (representing a particular grain size) was measured using an electronic balance and recorded and this was done for all the samples. From this data, weight % and cumulative weight % were calculated. From the results obtained, cumulative frequency curves were plotted, using the semi-log graph paper. Textural parameters like the graphic mean, standard deviation or sorting, inclusive graphic skewness and kurtosis were calculated using values for 5phi, 16phi, 25phi, 50phi, 75phi, 84phi and 95phi, where applicable. These parameters were used for the construction of scatter plots needed for environmental interpretation.

Figure 1. Map of Nigeria showing location of Akwa Ibom State

Figure 2. Map of Akwa Ibom State Showing Study Area (Ibeno and Eastern Obolo L. G. As)

Figure 3. Cross Section Map of Akwa Ibom State Showing Study Area (Ibeno and Eastern Obolo L.G.As)

2.4. Procedure for Heavy Mineral Analysis

Ten (10) samples were selected for heavy minerals separation, five from each location. The samples were sieved and the fraction from 125µm was used. 40g of sodium hemataphosphate (salt) was measured and dissolved in 1 litre of distilled water. The mixture was shaken vigorously until the whole salt dissolved. 10g of sand fraction retained on the 125µm mesh was measured using the weighing balance and soaked in the salt solution for twenty four hours. After that, the sample was washed with distilled water until the dirt was completely removed. The washed sample was dried in the oven for about thirty minutes. 5g of each washed sample was poured into a separating funnel containing bromoform (Bromoform of specific gravity 2.85 was the heavy liquid used as the separating medium). The mixture was rigorously stirred and then allowed to settle. The separating funnel tap was opened to allow all heavy minerals that settle to its stem to be collected into a filter paper fitted into a glass funnel in a conical flask. The separated heavy minerals were then washed with acetone (to remove the effects of the bromoform), oven-dried and mounted on glass slides with Canada balsam. Examination and identification of the heavy minerals were carried out in accordance with Krumbein and Pettijohn [51]. The mineral identification was done under a transmitted light flat stage petrographic microscope on the basis of their optical properties like color, pleochroism, absorption, relief, extinction, and birefringence. The number, size and shape of the different opaque and non-opaque minerals were also noted. The maturity index or “ZTR index” was calculated and used as a scale for the estimation of the degree of modification or maturity of the entire heavy mineral assemblage of the samples. The “ZTR index” is calculated in percentage, using a formula known as Hubert’s scheme [21], written below:

From the calculated percentage, ZTR < 75% implies immature to sub mature sediments while ZTR > 75% is indicative of mineralogically mature sediments.

3. Result and Discussion

3.1. Grain–Size Analysis

Grain size statistical parameters have been employed for characterizing and interpreting various depositional processes and environment [4,18,19,22,52,53,54,55,56]. The grain–size statistical parameters used in describing the particle size distribution are mainly categorized into four major groups: (i) the mean, (ii) standard deviation (sorting), (iii) skewness, and (iv) kurtosis. Although these parameters can be easily acquired by mathematical or graphical methods, it has been observed that the mathematical ‘method of moments’ is the most accurate since it represented the entire sample population [2,51,57].

In the present study, the grain size parameters of the study area [graphic mean, inclusive graphic standard deviation (ϬI), inclusive graphic skewness (SK₁), graphic kurtosis (KG)] and statistical properties of grain sizes and its interpretations are shown in Table 1 and Figure 3 & Figure 4.

Table 1. Grain size analysis results and interpretations (Source Folk and Ward [19])

Figure 4. Bivariate plot of graphic mean against inclusive standard deviation/ sorting

Figure 5. Bivariate plot of inclusive skewness against inclusive standard deviation/ sorting (Moiola and Weiser [23])

3.1.1. Graphic Mean

The mean is the most commonly presented parameter of sediment size analysis and it reflects the overall average size of the sediment as influenced by sediment and depositional environment. In the present study area, mean value ranges from 1.70Ф to 2.83Ф indicating a prominent distribution of medium to fine sand in these study locations. The distribution of medium sand in this region might have accrued from the transport of coarser lighter sediments as a result of high velocity waves and high energy environment [10]. Findings from this present study suggest that the sediments are medium to fine grained indicating that they have been transported far from their source. Overall, it has been observed that samples from beaches undergo repeated wear and tear by wave action and therefore, it is common to have fine nature of sediments [10,19,24,25].

3.1.2. Standard Deviation (Sorting)

Standard Deviation (sorting), which relates to the range of grain sizes, measures the uniformity of the particle size distribution. In the present study, samples analyzed showed a high degree of sorting with values ranging from 0.39Ф – 0.60Ф. This indicates moderately sorted to moderately well sorted nature which may be due to the addition of sediments of different grain size from the reworking of beach ridges or by alluvial action and the prevalence of strong wave convergence throughout the year [10]. In this present study, the average sorting value is 0.50Ф which corresponds to high energy environments. In another related study, similar observations have been reporetd by Vijayam et. al [58] in the East Coast of India. It has been observed that typical environments that display this range of sorting values include most beaches (foreshore), shallow marine shelf, and many inland dunes [20,26]. Moderate to moderately well sorting of sediments indicate low and moderate energy condition in the depositinal environment.

3.1.3. Skewness

Skewness (which lies within the range –1 to +1) measures the asymmetry of a frequency distribution and based on the classification of Folk and Ward [19] the skewness values of these sands vary from negatively skewed to very positively skewed. In the present study, the samples analyzed have skewness values ranging from -0.02 to 0.10 indicating that the sediments are near symmetrical. The average skewness value of the analyzed samples is 0.04 which corresponds to near symmetrical. In addition, most of the skewness values are positive which indicate skewness towards the finer grain sizes. However, the negative values indicate skewness towards the coarser grain sizes. In a similar study, Sathasivam et. al [30] reported that the negative skewness values indicate coarse-skewed material, whereas the positive values represents more material in fine skewed. In the present study, fine sediments could be attributed to the prevailing high wave energy condition, the seasonal wave action, coastline erosion and various factors which might have influenced the textural characteristics of coastal sediments. The mixed distribution of coastal sediments could be attributed to washing and backwashing of waves, and as such, coarser sediments are retained and get entrapped amidst finer sediments [10].

3.1.4. Kurtosis

Kurtosis is easily interpreted as a measure of the “peakedness” of the distribution and/or a measure of ratio between the sorting in the tails of the curve and the sorting in the central portion. According to Folk and Ward [19], the graphic kurtosis is the qualitative measure of the part of sediments already sorted elsewhere in a high energy environment and later transported and modified by another type of environment. In the present study, the kurtosis values obtained from the samples analyzed range from 1.02 to 2.46 and the average kurtosis value is 1.74 which shows that the study area is very leptokurtic in nature. The extreme values of kurtosis, leptokurtic and very leptokurtic, indicate that the sediments were transported in high or low energy conditions to a new environment. Beach sediments show extreme kurtosis values due to good sorting achieved in high energy environments [19]. It is generally known that kurtosis is a second indicator of sorting where very flat curves equate to poorly sorted sediments or those with bimodal frequency curves are platykurtic [54]. Friedman [59] suggested that extreme high or low values of kurtosis imply that part of the sediment achieved its sorting elsewhere in a high energy environment. It is known that variation in the kurtosis values is a reflection of the flow characteristic of the depositing medium [41,60,61]. The dominance of finer size of platykurtic nature of sediments reflects the maturity of the sand. This may be due to the aggregation of sediment particle size by compaction, and the variation in the sorting values are likely due to continuous addition of finer/coarser materials in varying proportions [62]. The predominance of medium to fine grained and well sorted sediments suggests that the sediments have been transported far from their source. The histogram charts for the different samples (standard deviation versus mean (Figure 4) and standard deviation versus skewness (Figure 5) indicate a beach environment of deposition [22,23], showing that the sediments are dominated by one class of grain size; a phenomenon characteristic of beach environments.

3.2. Depositional Environment

Determination of the depositional environment for sediment usually requires some knowledge of its shape, internal characteristics and their spatial distribution within it [18,63,64]. In the present study, various textural parameters obtained have not shown many variations and several researchers have expressed similar views over the years [10,23]. The waves that deposit sands on the beaches have significant competence. The incoming waves and outgoing backwash exert winnowing effect on the sediments but tide–generated longshore currents complicate this winnowing process. Findings from this present study showed that standard deviation vs skewness falls within the low water mark and strandline except a few stations at foreshore environment. The bivariant plot of mean vs. standard deviation/sorting (Figure 4) shows that the sediments are poorly sorted irrespective of their coarseness or fineness. As such, this reveal that sorting is independent of grain size and that sorting deteriorates in both coarse and fine sediments [10,42]. Coarse sediments are usually found closest to the source area because they are too heavy to be transported far, while fine sediments such as finer silt travel the farthest. In this study, the scatter plot of skewness vs. standard deviation (Figure 5) also helps to characterize the sediment as a separate cluster. A plot of skewness versus standard deviation indicates samples in a beach or river regime, but fails to separate the two [2]. Generally, standard deviation (sorting) plotted against skewness is widely considered to be an effective discriminator between river and beach [20,22]. The study region, located at the South end of Akwa Ibom State and occupying a vast coastal area, shows the influence of fluvial regime in beach environment.

Table 2. Mineral grains identified and their different proportions

Table 3. Provenance of heavy minerals

3.3. Heavy Minerals and Provenance

The results of heavy mineral content in the coastal sediments of Ibeno Beach and Eastern Obolo Beach are shown in Table 2. In this study, the result shows that both opaque and non–opaque heavy minerals were identified in the studied samples and ZTR index are shown in Table 2. The results obtained showed that the opaque minerals formed a significant part of the separated heavy fraction. The heavy minerals identified include rutile, zircon, tourmaline, hornblende, apatite, diopside, glauconite, pumpellyite, cassiterite, epidote, garnet, augite, enstatite, andalusite and opaque minerals. In a related study, it has been reported that the heavy minerals are dominated by opaque minerals (16 – 65%) associated with variable proportions of muscovite, chlorite, kyanite, sillimanite, biotite, pyroxene, amphibole, garnet, epidote, zircon, tourmaline, and rutile [38]. In this study, the calculated ZTR index from the result of the heavy mineral analysis for the selected samples ranged from 47.30% to 87.00% with most of the studied samples showing a ZTR index greater than 50%. These findings suggested that the sediments were mineralogically sub-mature and have been transported far from their source [21]. The ZTR index, which is often used to characterized association of ubiquitous minerals, is the sum of the percentage of zircon, tourmaline, and rutile, which are minerals resistant to weathering agents and constitute effective natural tracers for the tracing of the sediment dynamics along the coast [38,39,40]. In this study, heavy minerals analysis suggested a mixed provenance supplied detritus to the Benin Formation (Eocene). The implication is that the samples were reworked sediments of both metamorphic (high rank) and igneous (both mafic and sialic) origin (Table 3). Zircon, tourmaline and rutile crystals have high proportion of rounded and sub roundedness. The round zircon, tourmaline and rutile grains are indicative of reworked sediments. The high-grade metamorphic mineral like andalusite and the igneous mineral suite of apatite, epidote, garnet, etc. suggested that the sediments are derived from both metamorphic and igneous sources. The sources of these sediments are probably from Oban Massif through the Benue Trough and the Calabar Flank which are the closest sedimentary basin to the study area. It is known that heavy mineral assemblages present in marine sedimentary deposits are greatly affected by fluvial sediments derive from adjacent continental areas [11,43,44].

4. Conclusions

The study revealed that, the predominance of medium to fine grained and well sorted sediments suggested that the sediments have been transported far from their source. The transport of sediments in the study area is mainly due to saltation process. Longshore current and onshore–offshore movements of sediment are primarily responsible in sorting of the heavy minerals. The histogram charts for the different samples and standard deviation versus skewness indicated a beach environment of deposition. This implies that the sediments are dominated by one class of grain size; a phenomenon characteristic of beach environments. The heavy mineral assemblages identified in this research work were rutile, zircon, tourmaline, hornblende, apatite, diopside, glauconite, pumpellyite, cassiterite, epidote, garnet, augite, enstatite, andalusite and opaque minerals. Higher concentration of the zircon, tourmaline and rutile in the fine and very fine sand fractions is attributed to high sorting by the waves. The result of ZTR index indicated that the sediments were mineralogically sub-mature and have been transported far from their source. Provenance of sediment has been deduced from heavy mineral assemblages and textural characteristics. The main supplies sources of sediment to the study area come mainly from the basement rocks of the Oban Massif as well as reworked sediments of the Benue Trough. The heavy minerals identified are indicative of being products of reworked sediments of both metamorphic (high rank) and igneous (both mafic and sialic) origin.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Research and Development Coordinator of Akwa Ibom State University, Nigeria and Engr. Emem E. Ite of Infiniti Innovative Group – USA for providing all the support for successfully completing this research paper.

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