Nature ESR signals of quartz E' center shed new light on river sediments provenance: A case study in southeast margin of the Tibet Plateau

Host rock samples and deposits collected from the upper Yangtze River and the Dadu River, which both drained the southeastern Tibet Plateau and nature electron spin resonance (ESR) signals of quartz E' center were determined with ESR spectrometry. Statistical analyses of the results show that nature signal intensity of quartz E' center as a new indicator can be used to fingerprint the source of detrital quartz in modern river sediments. Firstly, nature signal intensities of quartz E' center both in bedrocks and its deposits show lower values (less than 11 s. u.) in granitic drainages than those in metamorphic drainage and sedimentary drainage (more than 19 s. u.). Secondly, nature signal intensities of quartz E' center in deposits will be enhanced by sunlight bleaching from source to sink. Thirdly, with the increasing of transportation distance accumulation nature signal intensities of quartz E' center in deposits are changed according to the different mixture ratios of samples which attributed the different types of host rocks. The researches indicate that nature signal intensities of quartz E' center have a significantly dependence on lithology both in bedrocks and in deposits, and nature signal intensities of quartz E' center can reflect the mixture ratio of deposits with different types of sourced bedrocks.