Clay Minerals And Their Implications For Late Quaternary Palaeoclimate Investigation: A Case Study In Pontian, Johor

Abstract

Paleoclimate during Quaternary can be inferred from clay minerals composition in the coastal deposit acquired from the west coast of Johor, wherein this particular region has been linked with the few scholarly efforts delineating the field. This present study examined several core materials sourced from Pontian, Johor, mainly due to their almost entirely fine-grained sedimentary sequence suitable for high-resolution clay mineral assessment. Accordingly, semi-quantitative clay minerals assemblages were obtained by employing a series of measurement repetitions of air-drying, glycolation, and heating up to 350 °C and 550 °C on the sample conditions via X-ray diffraction (XRD) method. These assemblages were found to be predominantly kaolinite and illite in nature, apart from the presence of minor chlorite and smectite possibly sourced from the tuffaceous deep water deposit and granitic intrusive rock in central Johor. In line with this, stratigraphic clay mineral records revealed that the Late Quaternary experienced climatic changes between warm and humid conditions, whereas drier conditions were correlated to Greenlandian and Northgrippian sub-epoch of Holocene.