Geochemistry of surface sediments from the Arabian Sea

Abstract

We report new geochemical data (Si, Al, Na, K, Rb, Sr, Mn, Cu, Ni, Fe, Zn, Co and Pb) for 126 surficial sediments and base-metal partition data for limited samples from the deep Arabian Sea and discuss the controls affecting these elemental concentrations. The geochemical nature of, and differences between, sediments from three physiographically/tectonically distinct regions have been identified. The spatial resolution allows us to discern the various processes operative in the deep Arabian Sea during the Holocene epoch. R-mode factor analysis on the geochemical data suggests that four dominant factors are responsible for the observed geochemical variations in the samples, namely; Carlsberg Ridge hydrothermal activity, terrigenous contribution, hydrogenous (authigenic) precipitates and biological contribution.