Scanning Electron Microscopy of Quartz Grain Surface Textures of the Gondwana Sediments, Barapukuria, Dinajpur, Bangladesh

Surface textural analysis of 43 Gondwana quartz grains of Barapukuria area, northern Bangladesh was performed by Scanning electron Microscope (SEM) to identify different types of textures and to draw their implications regarding transportational and/or depositional environments. Eighteen (18) individual types of surface textures, namely the pitted surface, conchoidal fractures, straight and arcuate steps, fracture planes/plates, adhering particles, angular and rounded outlines, relief, concavities, irregular solution features, gullying, silica globules, silica pellicle and crystalline overgrowths were identified.

A detailed investigation of the above mentioned surface textures of quartz grains suggest that the Gondwana sediments of Barapukuria area were transported a moderately long distance through a high energy aqueous medium and finally came to rest in a silica saturated depositional environment. Diagenetic activities at the post depositional period were distinctly prominent.