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Sedimentological and geochemical signatures of the Ebolowa Municipal Lake sediments (South-Cameroon): implication for provenance, weathering, and depositional environment conditions

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Abstract

Sediments from the Ebolowa Municipal Lake in Southern Cameroon were subjected to sedimentological, mineralogical, and geochemical analyses in order to assess their provenance, chemical weathering, and depositional environment conditions. Sedimentological analyses showed that sediments are characterized by a predominance of fine fraction (54.4%), sandy to clayey texture, and sigmoid, hyperbolic, and parabolic particle size curves, proving their deposition in a quiet environment with little turbulence influence. Mineralogical composition is quartz, kaolinite, illite, and goethite, indicating an intense chemical weathering of the source area. The heavy minerals are made up of hornblende-tourmaline-zircon-biotite and garnet-staurotide-sillimanite associations, signposting a mixed source rock composition of magmatic and metamorphic origins, which are suggested to be charnockitic suite rocks found in the study area. Geochemical analysis indicates these sediments exhibit variable SiO2 contents (60.44–89.47%) and Al2O3 (6.55–18.17wt%), high light rare earth elements /heavy rare earth elements ratio values (16.56–32.85), and a negative europium anomaly on the chondrite-normalized diagram, indicating that the sediments were sorted from a source rock of felsic composition. The values of the Chemical Index of Alteration (82.44–88.60%), Plagioclase Index of Alteration (95.5–97.91), Rb/Sr (1.92–2.78), and U/Th (0.08–0.27) coupled with the A-CN-K diagrams suggest intense chemical weathering of the source area. The Index of Compositional Variation (0.40–0.78) values suggest mature sediments. U/Th (0.08–0.27) and V/Cr (0.83–1.58) values illustrate sediments settling in an oxidizing environment.

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  • 30 June 2022

    The original version of this paper was updated to modify the reference from "(Bauvais 2000)" to "Beauvais (1999)".

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Department of Earth Sciences of the Faculty of Science of the University of Yaoundé I (Cameroon) for the availability of laboratories and the facilitation of analyses abroad, and Dr. NFONKA Zacharie’s contribution to this work, both for field work and for laboratory analysis.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, P.O box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroon

    Daniel florent Akono, Cédric Belinga Belinga, Emile Ekomane & Paul-Désiré Ndjigui

  2. Department of Geology, University of Buea, P.O Box: 63, Buea, Cameroon

    Eric Bokanda Ekoko

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  1. Daniel florent Akono
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Akono, D.f., Bokanda Ekoko, E., Belinga Belinga, C. et al. Sedimentological and geochemical signatures of the Ebolowa Municipal Lake sediments (South-Cameroon): implication for provenance, weathering, and depositional environment conditions. Arab J Geosci 15, 1127 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-10338-5

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