• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2013

In this study, we tried to define the origin of fine-grained sediments in Southwestern Cheju Island Mud (SWCIM) using principal component analysis. We used relative clay mineral compositions using 138 marine surface sediments, 4 Huanghe sediments and 3 Changjiang river sediments by the semi-quantitative X-ray diffraction analysis. We made bioplot diagram using R program with principal component 1 and component 2 because they might contain more than 90% of all data. Although the distribution pattern of each clay minerals in SWCIM is so intricate, smectite and kaolinite contents are high in the west region, but illite and chlorite contents are rich in the east region. In the biplot, the east region of SWCIM distribute around Changjiang river, whereas west region of SWCIM disperse around Huanghe. Our results might reveal that west region of SWCIM is mainly originated by Huanghe, but east region of SWCIM by Changjiang River.