Sediment recycling and indication of weathering proxies

As a result of recycling, the mineralogical and chemical compositions of riverine sediments may reflect the combined effects of the present-day weathering regime as well as previous weathering and diagenetic alteration history. River sediments can be interpreted as a mixture of non-weathered bedrock—of igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary origin—and solids formed by the modern weathering system. The correlation between the weathering proxies chemical index of alteration and weathering index of Parker offers an approach to distinguish fine suspended particles, coarse bedload sediments, and recycled sediments under the influence of quartz dilution. Recycling of cation-depleted source rocks formed during past geological weathering episodes may have great impacts on the weathering indices of sediments from the Changjiang (Yangzte) and Zhuoshui Rivers. Special caution is required when using chemical weathering indices to investigate the intensity of chemical weathering registered in fluvial sediments. To minimize the effect of hydrodynamic sorting or sediment recycling, we suggest that the fine sediments (e.g. suspended particles and <2 μm fractions of bedload sediments) in rivers better reflect the average of weathered crust in catchments and the terrigenous end-member in marginal seas.