An application of scanning electron microscopy of quartz sand surface textures to the environmental diagnosis of Neogene carbonate sediments, Finestrat Basin, south‐east Spain

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Abstract
The Finestrat Basin, 25 km NE of Alicante, contains a poorly understood sequence of Neogene sediments that lack an indigenous fauna. Study of the surface textures of euhedral quartz grains, probably derived by first‐cycle weathering from an underlying Triassic mudstone diapir, provides new data on the depositional environment of the basin. The possible influence of alluvial fans is recorded by mechanical breakage features in these non‐glaciated sediments. The distribution and abundance of chemical etch pits suggest their diagenetic origin following non‐marine deposition, while the density and abundance of mechanically induced ‘V’‐shaped pits seems typical of fluvial and low‐energy littoral environments. The presence of silica precipitated during transport, such as silica globules, suggests a silica‐rich transport medium and a depositional environment that was not highly alkaline. In combination with independent sedimentological evidence, these data suggest that the sediments collected in a lake after derivation by rivers and alluvial fans from the diapir.It is concluded that the abundance and superposition of features must be noted for each grain in order to yield useful results, and that the mechanisms acting on each grain be deduced before attempting to identify specific environments.