Netherlands Journal of Geosciences — Geologie en Mijnbouw |95 – 1 | 23–107 | 2016 doi:10.1017/njg.2015.32 Review The mineralogy of suspended matter, fresh and Cenozoic sediments in the fluvio-deltaic Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt–Ems area, the Netherlands: An overview and review J. Griffioen1,∗,G.Klaver2 &W.E.Westerhoff3 1 TNO Geological Survey of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 80 015, 3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands and Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80 115, 3508 TC Utrecht, the Netherlands 2 Formerly BRGM, Laboratories Division, 3 av. C. Guillemin, BP36009, 45060 Orleans, France; Le Studium, CNRS, Orleans, France; TNO Geological Survey of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 80 015, 3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands 3 TNO Geological Survey of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 80 015, 3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands ∗ Corresponding author. Email: jasper.griffi
[email protected] Manuscript received: 18 March 2015, accepted: 13 October 2015 Abstract Minerals are the building blocks of clastic sediments and play an important role with respect to the physico-chemical properties of the sediment and the lithostratigraphy of sediments. This paper aims to provide an overview of the mineralogy (including solid organic matter) of sediments as well as suspended matter as found in the Netherlands (and some parts of Belgium). The work is based on a review of the scientific literature published over more than 100 years. Cenozoic sediments are addressed together with suspended matter and recent sediments of the surface water systems because they form a geoscientific continuum from material subject to transport via recently settled to aged material.