Chemical Composition of Sands in the Kara Sea

Sands make up 5–7% of the surface bottom sediments in the West Kara zone and slightly more in the Ob–Yenisei zone. Analysis of the bulk chemical composition of the sands has shown that they contain greywackes, lithites, and subarkoses. This suggests that there is currently no significant clastic averaging in the Kara Sea and that sand composition is largely determined by the composition of the provenance. The concentrations of a number of trace elements, normalized to the composition of the average Phanerozoic cratonic sandstone, indicate their significant difference from this reference material. This difference is also confirmed by the localization of data points of sands from different areas of the Kara Sea on discriminant diagrams. The REE systematics of sands suggest that the contribution of erosion products of major igneous rocks is significant only for the Yenisei Bay sands. The sands from other areas have (La/Yb)_N and Eu/Eu* values indicating the predominant role of erosion products of felsic igneous rocks in their composition.