Elemental and Sr-Nd isotopic compositional disparity of riverine sediments around the Yellow Sea: Constraints from grain-size and chemical partitioning

•We solved the compositional linkage between river sediments and their source rocks.•Sediments were physically and chemically partitioned for element and Sr-Nd compositions.•Data revealed CR and KR sediments were derived from granodiorite and granites, respectively.•Especially, estimation of the source rocks is clearly evident in an A-CN-K diagram.

To obtain a better understanding of the source compositions of the river sediments around the Yellow Sea and their relationship with source rocks, elements and strontium-neodymium (Sr-Nd) isotopes of different grain-sizes (silt and clay populations) and chemical (labile and residual phases) fractionations in riverine sediments were studied extensively. These results clearly revealed a systematic compositional disparity between Korean river (KR) and Chinese river (CR) sediments, especially in the residual (detrital) fraction. The geochemical dissimilarity between these might reflect inherited signatures of their source rocks but with minor control from chemical weathering. In particular, the remarkable enrichment of some elements (iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg)) and the behavior of large ion lithophile elements (e.g., barium (Ba), potassium (K) and Sr) during weathering as well as less-radiogenic Sr isotopic compositions implies that CR sediments might be weathering products of relatively more mafic rocks, with abundant ferromagnesian and plagioclase feldspar minerals, compared with KR sediments derived from silicic granites with relatively higher quartz and potassium feldspar contents. This different petrological rationale is clearly evident in an A-CN-K diagram, which estimated the source rock of CR sediments as granodioritic, a composition that reflects accurately the average composition of weathered continental crust in China. The recognition of such geochemical systematics in two river sediments, especially in grain-size and chemically partitioned data, may contribute to the establishment of provenance tracers for the Yellow Sea and East China Sea sediments with multi-sources as well the dust deposition in the western Pacific.