Suspended-sediment concentration and mineralogy in the central and western Mediterranean and mineralogic comparison with bottom sediment

Concentrations and mineralogy of suspensates in the central and western Mediterranean are vertically and laterally variable. This variability is related to input by resuspension of bottom sediments and from local terrigenous sources. Bottom currents flowing through constrictions at the straits of Sicily and Gibraltar and the eastern entrance of the Alboran Sea resuspend bottom sediments, giving rise to increased concentrations of suspensates in near-bottom waters and limited inputs to higher levels. There is no evidence of a suspensate-rich bottom water in the Balearic Sea.Terrigenous sources are believed to be the cause of increasing relative amounts of montmorillonite in surface waters as they flow eastward within the Mediterranean. Montmorillomite is relatively more important in suspended sediments than in bottom sediments where kaolinite—chlorite is dominant.