Chemical composition of White Sea bottom sediments

Contents of major elements in surface layer bottom sediments of the White Sea were determined by the X-ray fluorescence method. Application of the statistical analysis (principal component method and cluster analysis) made it possible to divide the sediments into more or less homogeneous seven groups with different chemical and grain size compositions. In general, the groups corresponded to sediment lithotypes based on the classification elaborated at P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Contents of Si and Al are controlled by the ratio of sand-silt and pelite grain size fractions, while variations in content of Mn (and Fe in part) are governed by redistribution of elements in the course of redox processes of early diagenesis.