Mineralogy assemblage of sand dunes in Khuzestan Province, Iran

Sand dunes cover more than half a million hectares of Khuzestan Province in Iran. These areas are a serious threat to agricultural lands, buildings, and industrial facilities. Knowing the characteristics of these lands helps a lot to manage and control this threat. This research was done to determine the characteristics of sand dunes of Khuzestan Province and their management. The results showed that the dynamic characteristics of sand dunes, such as salinity, are different depending on the location and direction of the prevailing wind. However, the organic carbon, cation exchange capacity, and acidity (pH) were similar in all regions. Soluble K was inversely related to salinity. In the western regions, carbonates (lime and dolomite) along with quartz, kaolinite, chlorite, and illite were the dominant minerals, and smectite, palygorskite, and vermiculite were in the next order. The southeastern parts had a similar composition, but the proportion of minerals was different based on the location, especially for polygorskite. The proportion of smectite, polygorskite, and sepiolite minerals was high in the direction of prevailing winds, but their amount decreased in the inner parts. Sepiolite was observed only in the southeastern regions, which was related to the origin of gypsum soils in the neighborhood areas. A similar composition of these minerals and their proportion was also seen in the deeper parts. The similarity of the sand dunes minerals shows that they have the same origin and their similarity with the composition of soil minerals in the plains of Khuzestan indicating that these sands were formed from the wind erosion of the plain during different dry periods.