摘要
Heavy minerals in the Pearl River sediments have excellent correlation with their source rocks. Obvious differences in heavy minerals assemblages and their diagnostic minerals have been studied in different branches of the River. The source of the river deposits can be divided into three provinces from west to east on the basis of heavy minerals assemblage types, mineral index (ATi, ZTi, ZTR) values and their correlation. The results demonstrate that the characteristics of heavy minerals assemblages are useful tools to trace the provenance evolution of the Pearl River, and of significance in revealing the erosion-transportation-sedimentation pattern in the Pearl River region for source-sink comparison and analysis.