Nature and composition of shore-zone sediments between Jeddah and Yanbu, eastern Red Sea

The shore-zone sediments between Jeddah and Yanbu, west coast of Saudi Arabia, are composed mostly of skeletal carbonate sands. The nearshore sediments containing benthic foraminifera, algal fragments and molluscs are multimodal, the mean grain size varying between 0.76 and 2.35 ø. The beach sediments, except samples dominated by cerithid gastropods in some localities, are relatively finer than the nearshore sediments. Although the beaches to a great extent comprise sand-sized material, fine lime muds and coarse clastic gravels occur in certain areas. The dune sediments comprising mostly algal grains and ooids are very fine with 50 percent of the material in the 0.25–0.18 mm size grade. Except a general northward decrease in mean grain size, regional trends in the textural parameters of the sediments between Jeddah and Yanbu are not quite apparent. Lateral variations in the textural characteristics suggest a landward migration of the sediments in the shore zone under the influence of northerly and northwesterly winds. The carbon and oxygen (δ ¹³C + 4.80 to 4.84‰ PDB) (δ ¹³O ? 0.04 to + 0.53‰ PDB) isotopic ratios of the lime muds occurring in certain shallow margins in the shore-zone, which are much higher than those of the green algae, indicate that the fine carbonates are at least in part inorganic in origin.

Like the shallow-water carbonates in tropical seas, aragonite and high Mg-calcite are the dominant carbonate minerals in the shore-zone sediments. There is a landward increase in aragonite contents caused by the landward migration of fine material from the nearshore. The dominant clay mineral in the nearshore sediments is kaolinite with subordinate swelling chlorite and little illite. Kaolinite is contributed by the coastal regions under the sub-tropical humid climate. Swelling chlorite is considered to have been formed in the nearshore by mechanical mixture of chlorite and montmorillonite derived from the metamorphic and igneous terrains of the Tertiary mountains bordering the coastal plain.