| Abstract: | As mineral magnetism is used as a tracer for sourcing river and dam sediments, changes in the magnetic properties that may occur during transport between the source and sink must be considered. Abrasion and breakage of particles will occur during transport. These processes were examined in simulation experiments with a granitic and a sedimentary soil. The effects of these processes on the magnetic properties of a granitic and a sedimentary soil were examined using a simulated breakage/abrasion experiment. Breakage and/or abrasion had substantial effects on the magnetic properties of both soils. All particle sizes were affected, but the magnitude varied through the size range of derived particles. The major effect was on the concentration of magnetic minerals, with differences between the concentrations in particle sizes of the original material and those generated by the experiments being as much as 20 times. The effect on the granite soil was to reduce the concentrations, i.e. derived material was less than original material; whereas for the sedimentary soil the derived particles had higher concentrations. The effect on magnetic grain size, as indicated by the magnetic ratios, was less than the effect on the mass magnetic properties, but still substantial for some ratios for some sizes. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
