Gulf coastal plain evolution in West Louisiana: Heavy mineral provenance and Pleistocene alluvial chronology

High Resolution Heavy Mineral Analysis (HRHMA) of late Pleistocene terrace samples, their Tertiary source rocks, and modern river sediments provided an effective tool for reconstructing sediment provenance and mapping heavy mineral provinces in southwest Louisiana. Each province, linked to a discrete source region, represents Pleistocene fluvial channel belts within which depositional activity was controlled by periods of climate, sediment supply, and sea level changes. Four coastal heavy mineral provinces have been identified. The Northern Province (NP), drained by the lower reaches of the Sabine and Calcasieu Rivers underlies level mid- and late Pleistocene coastal terrace surfaces and is distinguished by high-grade metamorphic assemblages (kyanite, staurolite, sillimanite) and abundant zircon, probably of Ouachita Mts. derivation. Transporting eroded Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Pleistocene coastal plain deposits, the modern Calcasieu and Sabine River sands in west-central and southwest Louisiana and east Texas, display identical heavy mineral composition to that of the NP. Level Late Pleistocene coastal terrace areas in the east represent the Red River Province (RRP) with dominant epidote, tourmaline, garnet, and zircon. Its mineralogy is influenced significantly by Paleozoic–Mesozoic sedimentary units that frame the drainage basin upstream. Modern Red River sands differ in their spectra both from Red River Pleistocene coastal terrace and valley terrace deposits, interpreted by temporal fluctuations in sediment supply initiating a variable contribution of detritus from different sources. Tributaries that drain formations with high concentrations of high-grade metamorphic minerals also affected Red River valley Pleistocene terrace deposits in west-central Louisiana, enriching them in kyanite and staurolite. The Mississippi Province (MP) occupies the eastern-southeastern area of the low, flat, gently seaward-sloping Prairie coastal terrace. Whereas modern Mississippi alluvium is dominated by hornblende, pyroxenes, and epidote, as the result of post-depositional dissolution, pyroxenes are rare in the MP. The Mixed Suite Province (MSP) reflects MP, RRP, and to a lesser degree, NP signatures and forms the Prairie fluvial coastal plain surface closer to the Texas state line. Raw data of the principal heavy minerals were used for statistical analysis. Statistical parameters proved consistent with mineralogy-derived reconstruction of sediment provenance and provi