Planina polje is a karstic floodplain on which the river Unica flows. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the texture of sediments and its mineral composition change within the Planina polje – from the source at the entrance to the Planina cave and all the way to the ponor area on the Northern parts.
I took the sediment samples from 23 sampling points that belong to two different sedimentary environments, namely from the river bed and the flood plain, at three different depths; 25, 50 and 70 cm. Granulometric analysis was conducted to classify the fine-grained fraction. Furthermore, I have also prepared the samples for X-Ray diffraction analysis (XRD), from which I acquired the data about the mineralogical composition of the sediment.
I have determined that the majority of samples taken from the flood plains belong to the classes of slightly clayey sandy silt and slightly sandy slightly clayey silt. Samples taken along or from the river bed belong to the classes of slightly clayey silty sand and very slightly clayey (slightly) silty sand. Results of the analysis show that the sediment texture varies from the source to the ponor area, in such a way that the sand fraction percentage decreases and the percentage of silt and clay increases. I have determined that based on their texture, the sediment samples belong to those of the flood plain and to those that were collected along or from the Unica river bed.
The results of the mineralogical composition of the sediment showed the presence of quartz, dolomite, albite, calcite and traces of goethite and hematite. Additional analysis were carried out on selected samples to confirm the presence of clay minerals illite, clinochlore and kaolinite. Dolomite, quartz and illite have the highest percentage share in the samples. I determined that the samples with a higher quantity of dolomite belong to the locations inside or along the Unica river bed, whereas samples with a higher quantity of quartz and illite belong to the locations on the flood plain. The latter have also a higher quantity of other clay minerals. The content of dolomite decreases towards the ponor area, and concurrently the content of quartz and illite increases.
Based on the conducted analysis of sediment texture and mineral composition, I can conclude that the source of siliciclastic flood plain sediment can be attributed to the Postojna flysch hinterland. The source of carbonate material can be attributed to transportation from the surrounding area due to the fact that the majority of the field lies on Triassic dolomite. In addition, the source of carbonate material can be attributed to retransportation from Cerknica polje.
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