Multi-sources of desert sands for the Jungger Basin

The grain size and mineral composition analyses of 236 samples from nine different sub-deserts within the Jungger Basin of north-western China reveal that dune sands from that region may be derived by local reworking of the underlying sands. That the grain size characteristics and mineral compositions vary with different sub-deserts show the diversities of their sand sources. The similarities and differences in mineral assemblage, mineral dispersion, quartz/feldspar value and grain size distribution between the dune sands and their underlying sands in the same sub-desert indicate that dune sands have derived from underlying sands within the same sub-basin, but dune sands have also received minor contributions of sediment from areas outside the sub-deserts. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.