Quartz grain surface features in environmental determination of aeolian Quaternary deposits in northeastern Tunisia

Quartz grain surfaces from the Quaternary sand deposits of northeastern Tunisia were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Superficial textures on the quartz grain surface are commonly well preserved and are characteristic of specific formation conditions, allowing the reconstruction of the transport and sedimentation chronology and environment of individual grains. In the northeastern coastal part of Tunisia (Cap Bon peninsula), the quartz grain exoscopy analysis involves a complex sedimentary history during the Quaternary. The Quaternary dune samples provided a mixture of sub-angular and rounded quartz morphotypes with well preserved mechanical impacts on the grain surfaces. The investigated quartz grains revealed reasonably distinct textural combinations and are characterized firstly, by mechanical features, and secondly, by chemical processes. In all the materials examined, differing environmental evolutions, marine, aeolian and pedologic were detected.