Sediment partitioning and winnowing in a mixed eolian-marine system (Mauritanian shelf)

Continental shelf systems are highly dynamic sedimentary environments, where sediments from biogenic production as well as from terrigenous sources are redistributed in the shelf depositional system, and partly exported off the shelf to the slope and the deep sea. The Golfe d’Arguin (Mauritania, NW Africa) is dominated by such redistribution processes, involving clastic silt imported as dust from the Sahara desert and biogenic carbonates of marine origin. Indeed, surface-sediment grain size and mineralogy show a clear north–south partitioning of sediment type. Fine material is winnowed from the northern part of the gulf, and transported toward the southern part off the Banc d’Arguin, where coarse silt settles on the outer shelf and upper slope, at least down to 600 m water depth. Particles of the fine silt fraction, estimated in terms of eolian material collected aboard the research vessel, are thought to be exported further offshore as they correspond to grain sizes previously reported from adjacent deep-sea sediments. These findings suggest that the interpretation of dust records from the continental slope and rise off NW Africa must consider reworking and partitioning processes active on the Mauritanian shelf.