Sedimentary characteristics of paleo-aeolian dune sands of Salawusu Formation in the Salawusu River Valley
萨拉乌苏河流域萨拉乌苏组砂丘砂沉积特征

The Salawusu Formation of Milanggouwan section in Salawusu River Valley in-cludes 7 layers of paleo-mobile dune sands, and 4 layers of paleo-fixed and semi-fixed dune sands. Their structures have been observed and their grain size, surface textural features and several main chemical elements have been analyzed. The results showed that: 1) Some of the aeolian structural characteristics of these dune sands are similar to that of the recent dune sands. 2) They are also similar to the recent dune sands in grain size components, and pa-rameters of Mz, σ, Sk and Kg, as well as in several main chemical components. 3) The scattergrams of Mz-σ and SiO2--Al2O3+TOFE and the probability curves of grain size showed that these paleo-dune sands are different from paleosols and fluvio-lacustrine facies, but are consistency with recent dune sands. 4) Quartz sands have well roundness and surface tex-tural features such as dish-shaped pits, crescent-shaped pits, pockmarked pits, upturnedcleavage plates, siliceous precipitates and siliceous crevasses, indicating that they had been carried for a long time by the wind. As the 11 layers of paleo-dune sands possess the aeolian characteristics in structure, grain size, surface textural features and chemical elements, the origin of their formation should be attributed to eolation.