SEDIMENTARY

GEOLOGY

ELSEVIER Sedimentary Geology 97 (1995) 33-41

Spatial variations in heavy minerals and patterns

of sediment sorting along the Nile Delta, Egypt
Omran E. Frihy a, Morad F. Lotfy a, Paul D. Komar b,*
a Coastal Research Institute, 15 El Pharaana St., El Shallalat, Alexandtia, Egypt
b College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Coroallis, Ore. 97331-5503, USA

Received 29 March 1994; revised version accepted 8 December 1994

Abstract

Sand samples were collected along 34 beach profiles spanning the 240~km length of the Nile Delta in order to
examine the sorting patterns of heavy minerals that develop during cross-shore and alongshore sediment transport.
Factor analysis of the heavy-mineral contents shows that two mineral factors or groups result from sorting due to the
contrasting densities and sizes of the grains. One factor is dominated by augite, hornblende and epidote, while the
second factor consists of opaques, garnet, zircon, rutile and monazite. Minerals of factor 1 are of lower densities and
coarser sizes, and represent the grains that are selectively entrained by waves and currents in areas of beach erosion
and preferentially transported to zones of beach accretion where they are deposited. The higher-density minerals of
factor 2 tend to become concentrated in areas of beach erosion, accounting for the formation of black-sand placers
where the erosion has been greatest.
The spatial distributions of these two factors reflect the grain-sorting patterns of the heavy minerals which
coincide with the general trends of shoreline erosion versus accretion that exist along the length of the delta. There
is also a distinctive pattern of cross-shore sorting, with factor 2 containing the denser minerals being best developed
within the inner surf zone, generally with a maximum at the shoreline. Its development corresponds to the formation
of black-sand concentrates on the beach face where erosion has been greatest, implying that grain sorting has taken
place mainly within the swash zone. There is a general decrease in factor 2 relative to factor 1 toward the offshore,
often with oscillations that are congruent with the beach topography; factor 1 with the lower-density minerals is
greatest over offshore bars where deposition has prevailed.

1. Introduction (Komar and Wang, 1984; Li and Komar, 1992). In

each of those locations, erosion of the beach face
The importance of beach erosion to grain-sort- has resulted in high concentrations of dense heavy
ing processes has been demonstrated on the coasts minerals, while the lower-density minerals were
of India (Rae, 1957), New Zealand (Gow, 1967) transported either to the offshore or alongshore.
and on the Oregon coast of the United States Similar grain-sorting patterns have been docu-
mented by Frihy and Komar (1991) on the Nile
Delta of Egypt. Based on analyses of beach-face
* Corresponding author. sand samples, it was found that in areas of shore-

0037-0738/95/$09.50 0 1995 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights resewed

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34 O.E. Frihy et al. /Sedimentary Geology 97 (1995) 33-41

line erosion the sand becomes concentrated in
opaques, zircon, rutile and garnet, the higher-
density minerals within the beach sand, while the
lower-density hornblende as well as the quartz
and feldspars are transported alongshore and de-
posited in areas of shoreline accretion.
The investigation by Frihy and Komar (1991)
was limited to analyses of a series of sand sam-
ples from the beach face, and therefore could
only examine the patterns of alongshore grain
sorting, not those which may have occurred in the
cross-shore direction along beach profiles. The
objective of the present study is to extend the
mineral analyses into the offshore in order to
more fully document the patterns of grain sorting
that occur when certain stretches of coast erode
compared with those areas that have experienced
long-term net accretion.
2. Study site and sample collection
The study area extends along the 240&m length
of the Nile Delta (Fig. 0, from Alexandria in the
west to Port Said at the north end of the Suez
Canal. The sandy shoreline of the delta is charac-
terized by two promontories associated with the
Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile River
which have delivered sediments to the Mediter-
ranean Sea during recent centuries. Between
them is the remnant pre-modern Burullus
promontory, which was formed by sediments dis-

NILE DELTA Mediterranean Sea

0 20
I I
40k
I

Beach Profile Locations

Burullus
Promontory Damietta
Rosetta
Promontory

----_ Former branches of

the Nile River

----- Existing branches

L

Fig. 1. The Nile Delta coast, showing the positions of the 34 beach profiles where sand samples have been collected and analyzed
for their heavy-mineral contents. The arrows depict the broad patterns of longshore sediment transport as deduced by Frihy et al.
(1991). The wave-rose diagram is derived from the study of Nafaa et al. (1991) and shows the expected dominance of waves from
the northwest due to their generation along the length of the Mediterranean Sea.
 0. E. Frihy et al. /Sedimentary Geology 97 (I 995) 33-41 35

charged from the former Sebennitic branch of the
Nile which existed until about the 9th century
A.D. (Orlova and Zenkovitch, 1974; Arbouille
and Stanley, 1991).
A series of reports and publications have doc-
umented the extensive erosion that has occurred
during this century along the promontories of the
Nile Delta (e.g., Frihy, 1988; Smith and Abdel-
Kadar, 1988; Frihy et al., 1991; Blodget et al.,
1991; Lot@ and Frihy, 1993). The greatest ero-
sion has been on the modern Rosetta and Dami-
etta promontories, with the maximum shoreline
recession rates of 106 and 10.4 m/yr, respec-
tively, having occurred near the river mouths.
This erosion has been induced mainly by dam
construction on the Nile River which has elimi-
nated sand delivery to the coast, although cli-
matic factors may have been important, particu-
larly before construction of the Aswan High Dam
in 1964 (Frihy and Khafagy, 1991). With the elim-
ination of sand delivery to the coast, the contin-
ued action of waves generated on the Mediter-
ranean has resulted in erosion of the promonto-
ries, with the eroded sand generally being trans-
ported alongshore toward the east due to the
prevailing wave arrival from the northwest (see
the representative wave-rose diagram in Fig. 1,
derived from the study of Nafaa et al., 1991).
Sand eroded along the Damieta promontory close
to the river mouth is transported to the east
where it has been deposited along the flank of
the promontory in the form of a sand spit. Sand
eroded from the Rosetta promontory is trans-
ported both to the west into Abu Quir Bay (Fig.
1) and to the east where it is deposited to pro-
duce beach accretion. A third zone of lesser
erosion (6.5 m/yr> exists along the remnant Bu-
rullus promontory, with the eroded sand being
the length of the delta (Frihy and Komar, 1993).
These profiles extend offshore to about 6 m wa-
ter depth or to a distance of about 1000 m from
the fiied baseline. Thirty-four of these profiles
have been selected for analysis in the present
study, spanning the length of the delta (Fig. l),
and spaced at 0.5 to 9 km with the closer spacings
being in areas of maximum erosion and shoreline
change.
Using a grab sampler, bottom sediment sam-
ples were obtained during 1991 at every 100 m
along each of the profile lines, starting at the
shoreline, yielding a total of 311 samples to be
analyzed. Grain-size distributions were based on
standard rho-tap sieving. The size fractions rich-
est in heavy minerals, the 3-44 fractions, were
then subjected to heavy-mineral separation using
sodium polytungstate which has a density of 2.8
g/cm3 (Callahan, 1987). The heavy-mineral sepa-
rate was mounted on slides in Canada Balsam,
and 400 minerals were identified and counted
using the line method. The results of the counting
procedure have been converted into weight per-
centages in order to emphasize potential density
sorting and to make the results more relevant to
the formation of black-sand placers in this delta
environment; mineral densities used in the con-
version are given in Table 1. Q-mode factor anal-
ysis of Klovan and Imbrie (1971) was performed
on the weight percentages of the 9 mineral species
identified in the analyses for all 311 samples. The
objective of this analysis was to derive natural
mineral groups that might reveal the cross-shore
and alongshore patterns of grain sorting.
Table 1
Densities of the significant minerals within Nile Delta sands,
and their presence in the two dominant Q-mode factors

transported toward the east and deposited before Mineral Density Q-mode
it reaches the Damietta promontory. The overall W cm”) factor

pattern, therefore, is erosion of the beaches along Monazite 5.27 2

the three promontories and accretion within the Opaques (magnetite and ilmenite) 5.00 2
Zircon 4.65 2
embayments between the promontories, so that Rutile 4.25 2
with time the delta coast is being smoothed into a Garnet 4.00 2
simple arc. Epidote 3.45 1
The patterns of net shoreline erosion or accre- Augite 3.40 1
tion during the past 20 years have been docu- Hornblende 3.20 1
Tourmaline 3.10 ?
mented by annual surveys of beach profiles along
36 O.E. Frihy et al. /Sedimentary
3. Spatial distributions of mineral groups
The dominant heavy minerals in the beach-
sand samples are opaques (magnetite and il-
menite), augite and hornblende. The samples also
contain smaller concentrations of epidote, garnet,
zircon, rutile, monazite and tourmaline. There
are a number of other heavy minerals that occur
in very small amounts, including staurolite, kyan-
ite and apatite, but these are not included in the
present analyses due to their sporadic occur-
rence.
Two factors were obtained in the Q-mode
factor analysis that account for 89.1% of the
variance; factor 1 accounts for 81.8%, while fac-
tor 2 accounts for 7.3% of the initial information
contained within the samples. Additional factors
accounted for only a small percentage of the
variance, individually less than 5%, and did not
reveal spatial patterns that might be related to
expected mineral sorting during transport. The
mineral compositions of the two dominant factors
are graphically depicted in Fig. 2. Factor 1 con-
sists of augite, hornblende and epidote, while
factor 2 contains the opaques, garnet, zircon,
rutile, tourmaline and monazite.
The two factors do not represent different
sediment sources, since all of the minerals are
derived from the Nile River (Shukri, 1951). Fig. 3
shows that there is an inverse relationship be-
tween the two factors, an abundance of one cor-
responding to a depletion of the other. Such an
inverse relationship between factors that are not
related to independent sources suggests that they
were generated by processes of mineral sorting
during selective entrainment and transport
(Komar et al., 1989). This is borne out by the
contrasting properties of the minerals included
within the two factors. Factor 1 consists of miner-
als that have lower densities within the spectrum
of heavy minerals present in the delta beach
sands (Table l), while factor 2 contains the min-
erals having higher densities. Furthermore, com-
parisons with the sieving analyses of Anwar and
El Bouseily (1970) demonstrate that the minerals
of factor 1 are concentrated in the coarser-mesh
fractions than the minerals of factor 2. Thus,
factor 1 represents the lower-density, coarser-
Geology 97 (1995) 33-41
. .”
FACTOR 1
0.6
0.6 -
a 1.0
s! FACTOR 2
2 0.8 -
Lt.
0.6 -
0.4 -
0.2 -
o-
Fig. 2. The mineral compositions of the two factors derived in
the Q-mode factor analysis of 311 samples collected along the
beach profiles identified in Fig. 1. The heavy minerals con-
tained in factor 1 are of lower densities and coarser sizes than
those of factor 2 (Table 1).
grained heavy minerals, while factor 2 contains
the higher-density, finer-grained minerals. It has
been shown in studies related to the formation of
black-sand placers on beaches that grains of lower
density and larger sizes are selectively entrained
and transported away by the swash of waves on
the beach face, tending to leave behind as a lag
the minerals which have higher densities and
smaller grain sizes (Komar and Wang, 1984; Li
and Komar, 1992). Accordingly, one would expect
that factor 1 obtained in the present analysis
represents the minerals that have been selectively
transported away from areas of the delta experi-
encing erosion, and would become concentrated
in areas of net accretion. Conversely, factor 2
with its high content of opaques would represent
the black-sand residual in the zones of maximum
erosion. This is verified by the results of Frihy
and Komar (1991), even though their analyses
 0. E. Frihy et al. /Sedimentary Geology 97 (1995) 33-41 37

were limited to sand samples from the beach Nile River Mineralogy (ShukrLl951)
33%
face. That study found two factors which are 29% 29%
I
nearly identical to those obtained here, and the
relative abundances of those two factors matched
the patterns of shoreline accretion versus erosion
along the length of the delta. This is further 6%
illustrated in Fig. 4, which compares the his- t t t 1%
I-- L
togram of heavy-mineral abundances in sand M 0 2 R G E A H
samples from the Nile River near Cairo derived
from the analyses of Shukri (1950, with individ- Erosional Delta Sands
ual shoreline samples collected from erosional 42.6%

and accretional areas of the Rosetta promontory. I

I
In the histograms the minerals are given in order I
factor 2 factor 1
of decreasing density. It is apparent in this com- n I
parison of individual samples that monazite, the
opaques and the other high-density minerals are
I I I
, 16.6%

concentrated in the sample from the erosional

area of the delta, relative to their abundances in
the Nile River, while the abundances of epidote,
augite and hornblende are decreased. The latter M 0 Z R G E A H

minerals of factor 1 tend to become concentrated 47.5%

in the accretional beach areas, such that their

abundances are greater than in the original Nile Accretional Delta Sands /I l-l
River sand (Fig. 4). I
31 .a%

Of special interest here are the sorting pat- I

I
terns as revealed by the two factors in the cross- I
shore direction as well as alongshore. The spatial factor 2 I
I
19.2%
1 I
I
I

0.5% 0.2% 0.6% 20/.

Fig. 4. Histograms of heavy-mineral abundances within the

original Nile River sand (Shukri, 1950, and from erosional
and accretional areas of the Rosetta promontory after the
minerals have been sorted by selective entrainment and trans-
port. The histograms are based on the original number counts.
The minerals are ordered according to their densities, with
monazite having the highest density and hornblende the low-
est. The division between factors 1 and 2 occurs between
08 garnet and epidote.

0 I I ! I

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

FACTOR 1
Fig. 3. The inverse relationship between the two factors of
Fig. 2, suggesting that they have been produced by sorting
during selective entrainment and transport.
distributions of the two mineral factors are
graphed in Fig. 5, and show distinctive patterns
that are suggestive of both cross-shore and along-
shore grain sorting during transport. The top-most
38 O.E. Frihy et al. /Sedimentary Geology 97 (1995) 33-41

diagram in Fig. 5 is the beach bathymetry as
determined by the profiles obtained during 1991
at the time of sediment sampling. In general,
steeper profile slopes and greater water depths
exist offshore from the mouths of the Rosetta
and Damietta branches of the Nile, correspond-
ing to the areas of maximum shoreline erosion.
Beaches down drift from the zones of erosion,
along the flanks of the promontories where accre-
tion has occurred, tend to have lower slopes.
Thus, the varying beach topography corresponds
roughly to the alongcoast patterns of shoreline
recession versus accretion, and both in turn are
reflected in the patterns of factor 1 versus factor
2 in Fig. 5.
Very broadly, the factor patterns in Fig. 5
reveal a tendency for heavier weightings of factor
1 along the eastern half of the delta, with factor 2
dominating in the west. This likely results from
the overall west to east transport of sediments

A. WATER DEPTH (meters)

0 ’ r ,, , , ,,, , , , , , , ,, , ( , , , , , , ,, ,, , , , , , , , ’
1 5 10 15 20 25 30 34
profiles
B. FACTOR 1

0 50 150
loo kilometers
C. FACTOR 2

0 50 100 kllometers 150 200 240

Abu Quir Port Said

Factor Loading

Fig. 5. (A) The bathymetry of the nearshore region of the Nile Delta, based on the 34 beach profiles identified in Fig. 1. (B) The
spatial variations of factor 1 which contains the lower-density heavy minerals and shows maximum weightings in areas of beach
accretion. (C) The spatial variations of factor 2, the higher-density minerals which accumulate in areas of delta erosion. The arrows
depict the paths of longshore and cross-shore sediment transport as inferred by the mineral-sorting patterns.
 0. E. Frihy et al. /Sedimentary Geology 97 (1995) 33-41 39

along the beaches of the Nile Delta, tending to

yield an erosional residual (factor 2) in the west
while the grains that were preferentially en-
trained and transported away (factor 1) have
shifted to the eastern delta. The jetties at Port
Said at the entrance to the Suez Canal extend 7.7
km into the sea and act as a total barrier to the
eastward sand transport; the beach sand which , Profile 20
has accumulated there is highly enriched in factor
1 minerals. Superimposed on this delta-wide trend
is a longshore rhythmic variation between factors
1 and 2. This cycle is clearest in the eastern delta
a
where factor 2 dominates across the full length of z L factor 1
i
the profiles on the eroding Damietta promontory, 3 03,
while the accretional factor 1 is strong across the
a , Profile 24 (Damietta)
profiles to the immediate east and west of that
,o 1 _)
promontory. This pattern suggests that in the
eastern delta, grain sorting leading to the separa-
tion of factors 1 and 2 is mainly in response to
longshore sediment transport and uniformly af-
fects the entire profile lines. The inferred trans-
port is depicted by the arrows given in Fig. 5C,
trending from areas of high factor 2 (erosion) to
areas of low factor 2 and high factor 1, areas of
net accretion.
The mineral-sorting patterns along the western
half of the delta (Fig. 5) show the same tendency
to alternate in the longshore direction, but there
is also a distinctive cross-shore difference. Factor
0 500 1000
2 tends to dominate the inner portion of the OFFSHORE DISTANCE (meters)
nearshore, with the strongest imprint of factor 1 Fig. 6. The proportions of factors 1 and 2 along representative
being in the offshore. This indicates that there beach profiles. Profiles 7 and 24 are, respectively, from the
has been a cross-shore component to the sedi- Rosetta and Damietta promontories that have experienced
ment movement, with erosion of the beach face shoreline erosion, and the high loadings of factor 2 reflect the
and inner surf zone and the transport of the greater concentrations of the denser heavy minerals at those
locations. In contrast, profiles 20 and 28 are from areas of
eroded sand toward the offshore as well as in the shoreline accretion, and show higher loadings of factor 1. The
longshore direction. This pattern of sediment rhythmicity between factors 1 and 2 in profile 28 reflects the
movement is again depicted by the arrows in Fig. series of bars and troughs along the profile.
5c.
The cross-shore grain-sorting patterns are fur- Rosetta promontory (Frihy and Komar, 1991). In
ther revealed in the factor weightings along indi- the outer surf zone there is a slight undulation in
vidual profiles as shown in the examples given in the weights of the two factors, a variation that
Fig. 6. Profiles 7 and 24 are from the ends of the corresponds to the bathymetry of the beach with
Rosetta and Damietta promontories where shore- the greater weights of factor 1 (accretion) being
line recession has been greatest. Profile 7 shows congruent with offshore bars. Profile 24 from the
100% factor 2 within the inner surf zone, which Damietta promontory again shows the weighting
corresponds to the concentration of opaques that of factor 2 being greatest at the shoreline, but
form a black-sand placer on the beach face of the with a monatomic decrease in that factor toward
40 O.E. Frihy et al. /Sedimentav
the offshore. Profiles 20 and 28 of Fig. 6 are from
accretional areas. Profile 20 is from the eastern
flank of the central Burullus bulge, but is typical
of accretional areas in being uniformly dominated
by factor 1. Profile 28 is located on the flank of
the Damietta promontory in the area of the ac-
cretional spit. In spite of being in an area of net
accretion, this profile shows reasonably high load-
ings of factor 2 with a maximum at the shoreline,
probably resulting from the longshore transport
of the black-sand concentrate that originally
formed at the tip of the promontory which is only
7 km west of this profile. Of special interest in
profile 28 are the pronounced undulations in the
offshore which correspond to positions of bars
(high factor 1) versus the longshore trough (high
factor 2). This pattern suggests a dominance of
net erosion within the troughs and accretion of
the bars, an observation that agrees with the
many studies of bar formation on beaches (Komar,
1976). Furthermore, shore-parallel sand bars have
been investigated by Manohar (1979) and Nafaa
and Frihy (1993) along the Nile Delta coast.
Microscopic examinations of sand samples from
bars show high concentrations of shell fragments
and coarse grains of quartz, similar to shoreline
deposits along accretional areas of the delta: fur-
ther evidence of bar formation by net sand accre-
tion.
4. Summary and discussion
Q-mode factor analysis of heavy-mineral per-
centages in sand samples collected along beach
profiles from the Nile Delta have yielded two
factors or mineral groups that can be related to
patterns of selective grain sorting in the
nearshore. Factor 1 consists of heavy minerals of
lower density and coarser sizes that tend to be
preferentially entrained and transported from ar-
eas of net erosion to zones of accretion. Factor 2
contains the opaques and higher-density minerals
that are more difficult to entrain and therefore
tend to remain as a lag where net erosion has
occurred. Accordingly, the relative weightings of
the two factors along beach profiles and in the
longshore direction reveal the patterns of ero-
Geology 97 (1995) 33-41
sion, selective transport and deposition of the
heavy minerals within the beach sand.
The spatial patterns of the two factors (Fig. 5)
show a delta-wide trend of increasing factor 1
from west to east, that has been interpreted to
represent the general sorting of the delta sand as
it is transported toward the east by the prevailing
waves arriving from the northwest generated
along the length of the Mediterranean Sea. There
is also an alongcoast rhythmic cycle between fac-
tors 1 and 2, with the maximum loadings of factor
2 corresponding to the three delta promontories
(Rosetta, Burullus and Damietta) where shore-
line erosion has been greater, and factor 1 having
the maximum weightings within the embayments
between the promontories where accretion has
prevailed. With this general congruence to the
patterns of shoreline erosion, longshore transport
and shoreline accretion, the alongcoast variation
in the factor weightings corresponds to the sub-
cells identified by Frihy et al. (19911 based on
interpretations of the blockage of the sediment
transport by jetties, the deflection of inlets, as
well as variations in mineralogy and beach-sand
grain sizes. This simple alongcoast rhythmicity is
clearest in the eastern half of the delta (Fig. 5),
with a greater complexity in the western half due
to cross-shore sorting also being important, re-
sulting in a dominance of factor 2 (erosional) in
the inner surf zone and factor 1 (accretional) in
the offshore. The separation of the factors by
cross-shore sorting is shown particularly well by
individual profiles such as those graphed in Fig.
6. These show strong trends of offshore decreases
in factor 2 in areas of the delta where long-term
erosion has prevailed, with the proportions of the
factors reflecting the bathyrnetry by distinguishing
between bars (accretion) and troughs (erosion).
The profiles of Fig. 6 suggest that the pro-
cesses responsible for the sorting of the minerals
and their separation into the two factors operate
most strongly within the inner surf zone and are a
maximum at the shoreline where erosion is great-
est. This observation agrees with the conclusions
of Komar and Wang (1984) and Li and Komar
(1992) that the swash of waves on the beach face
plays an important role in grain sorting, especially
that leading to the development of black-sand
 O.E. Frihy et al. /Sedimentary Geology 97 (1995) 33-41 41

placers. In the case of the Nile Delta sands, this Callahan, J., 1987. A nontoxic heavy liquid and inexpensive
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