Raman spectroscopy as an effective tool for high-resolution heavy-mineral analysis: Examples from major Himalayan and Alpine fluvio-deltaic systems

Raman spectroscopy represents a new way to obtain detailed comprehensive information on heavy-mineral assemblages. In this work are presented several examples from major Alpine (Po River) and Himalayan (Ganga and Brahmaputra Rivers) fluvio-deltaic sands. Our attention was focused on the chemical properties of garnet, which is a widespread mineral in orogenic sediments, easy to be identified, and relatively stable during both equatorial weathering and intrastratal dissolution. Garnet grains were studied in different samples representative of various depositional environments (fluvial bar, fluvial levee, shoreface, beach berm, eolian dune), in order to investigate specifically the hydraulic behaviour of grains with different density in different hydrodynamic conditions. Raman spectra and semi-quantitative analysis of Raman shifts allowed us to rapidly determine the distribution of garnet types in each sample in order to obtain chemical composition, to calculate the density of each garnet, and finally to infer their respective provenance. This manuscript presents one possible application of the “MIRAGEM” method described by Bersani et al. in this volume. References, data sets and details on the analytical routine are widely explained in the above mentioned work.