Quartz and silica as guide to provenance in sediments and sedimentary rocks

Quartz is the most abundant and widespread detrial mineral in sedimentary rocks due to its wide occurrence in crystalline source rocks and to its relative resistance during transport and sedimentation. It occurs as a detrial component in conglomerates, sandstones and other siliciclastic rocks. In the present contribution quartz is considered as a guide to provenance analysis in sedimentary basins but also for provenance evaluation of other geological, archeological and industrial materials. In order to reconstruct the provenance of quartz various properties and parameters are commonly in use: colour, shape, internal structure, type of inclusions, geochemical parameters and cathodoluminescence. The analytical methods used can differ in preparation procedures, equipments used, time of analysis, etc. resulting in a wide spectrum of methods.