الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
’J’he texttne characteristics of the Recent sediments
in the Hw·~n .. tt u region of the ’ted Sea shelf were investigated
and compared with the beach sediments of
the same region. The size, sorting and skewness of
sediment grains generally decrease with the depth of
the sea.
The minerals present in the tidal sediments are:
Mg-calcite, aragonite, calcite, gypsum, qtlartz and
feldspar. The bulk sediments of the shelf zone and
some islands, on the other hand, contain mainly
aragonite and r·,Ig-cfllci te with occasionally small
proportio!lB of quartz and feldspars.
Sediment samples from the i!Llrirhc-<”1<-’ zone were
analyzed for the elem<’nts: Ca +2 , Mg+_ 2, Sr +2 ; Na + , K+
and total iron. The amounts of carbonate, sulphate,
chloride and organic carbon were determined. The distri
but :ion of these elements varied with location.
Carbonate, calcium, magnesitlrn, organic carbon, strontium,
sodium and total iron increase, while sulphate,
chloride and potassium decrease from the beach towards
the open sea. It is suggested th,tt climatic and- xvii
topographic conditions may exert some effect on the
process of concentrating these elements from sea water.
Sediments of the area are mostly carbonate of marine
biogenic origin. A very sm’!ll ftmount of carbonates is
of terrestrial origin . At least part of the carbonates
have undergone some dirtgenetic changes that resulted
in the formation of Mg+? rich carbonates. The bioenvironment
is reponsible for the ?recipitation of
Sr+2 with calcium carbonate mineral phases. K+ and Na+
in the sedicnents are largly precipitated from sea water.
Also, Cl - and so-2 4
are precipitated from sea water in
shallow marine zones and in lagoons due to the atid
climatic conditions prevailing in the area.