Grain size and mineralogical characteristics of reef island sediments in Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia

This is one of the initiatory studies focusing on grain size and mineral composition of the sediments from islands in the Spermonde Archipelago. The zonation area is represented by four islands in the Spermonde Archipelago: Kayangan Island, Barrang Lompo Island, Kodingareng Lompo Island, and Langkai Island. Sediment samples were collected from the four determined locations with three depth variations for each site (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 m). The study utilized sediment texture analysis to investigate the physical characteristic of sediments, by applying X-Ray Fluoresence (XRF) for the mineral components exploration. The results revealed the dominance of coarse sand in the sediments from the Spermonde Islands. The identified minerals in the sediment composition are: CaO, SiO, MgO, SrO, TiO2 and Fe2O3. CaO is the most abundant, likely due to the carbonate-producing organisms.