We study heavy and light minerals in siliciclastic rocks. A new method to obtain information about possible provenance of Cr-spinels have been performed by studying the silicate melt inclusions that could be present in them. I used Raman spectroscopy to characterize Cr-spinels in order to evaluate if this method could be useful in paleogeographic reconstruction. At present, glauconites are stuided by means of Raman spectroscopy in order to relate their K₂O content with Raman shift to verify if this method could be helpful in sedimentary petrology. A PhD project using FTIR analyses to determine OH content in detrital quartz is currently on-going on.

List of selected papers about this theme

Lenaz D., Kamenetsky V.S., Crawford A.J., Princivalle F. 2000 - Melt inclusions in detrital spinels from the SE Alps (Italy-Slovenia): A new approach to provenance studies of sedimentary basins. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 139, 748-758.

Lenaz D., Kamenetsky V., Princivalle F. 2003 - Cr-spinel supply in the Brkini, Istrian and Krk Island flysch basins (Slovenia, Italy and Croatia). Geol. Mag. 140, 335-372, DOI 10.1017/S0016756803007581.

Lenaz D. 2008 – Detrital pyroxenes in the Eocene flysch of the Istrian basin (Slovenia, Croatia). Geologica Acta, 6, 259-266.

Jafarzadeh M., Harami R.M., Friis H., Amini A., Mahboubi A., Lenaz D. 2014 – Provenance of the Oligo-Miocene Zivah Formation, NW Iran, assessed using heavy mineral assemblage, detrital clinopyroxene and detrital apatite geochemistry. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 89, 56-71, DOI 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2013.10.005.

Lenaz D., Mazzoli C., Velicogna M., Princivalle F. 2018 – Trace and Rare Earth Elements chemistry of detrital garnets from SE Alps and Outer Dinarides flysch basins: An important tool to better define the source areas of sandstones. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 98, 653-661, DOI 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2018.09.025.