Mineral Composition and Provenance of Al-Chabbab Stream Sediments, Wasit, Southeastern Iraq (original) (raw)
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Mineralogy of Lower Diyala River Sediments Northeastern Baghdad
Iraqi Journal of Science, 2019
The purpose of this study is to determine the mineralogical composition of Lower Diyala River, northeastern of Baghdad, and attempt to define the sources of sediments. 10 samples were collected from Lower Diyala River from the area between Himreen Dam to south Baghdad, where these samples are dealings by the heavy liquid to separated into light and heavy minerals. The light minerals contents are composed mainly of quartz, feldspars, and rock fragments. The main rocks fragments consist of; igneous, metamorphic, carbonate, chert rock fragments, and evaporites. The heavy minerals contents are opaques minerals, chlorite, amphiboles, pyroxenes, epidote, zircon, garnet, muscovite, biotite, kyanite, tourmaline, staurolite, and rutile. The source area of these sediments is the outcrops of Upper Miocene-Pliocene rocks at the northeastern part of the studied area, igneous, and metamorphic rocks in the northeastern Iraq and Iran.
Iraqi Journal of Science, 2023
The mineralogical investigation, geochemical analysis, and grain size calculation were carried out for floodplain sediment in the Tigris River to identify the properties of the sediment. The average values of the three main sediment classes, very fine sand, silt, and clay are 9.67, 62.53 and 27.80%, respectively. The silt size fraction was predominant. The classification and nomenclature of surface sediment types from the floodplain of the Tigris River are sandy-silt and mud, and they are the dominant sediment. Statistical parameters of grain size analysis refer to the average of the median values 3.74 Φ very fine sand; mean in average 6.16 Φ coarse silt; standard deviation evident by average 1.30 Φ poorly sorted, skewed; in average-0.14 negatively skewed, and the average of Kurtosis 2.80 very leptokurtic. The samples analysed by the XRD technique revealed clay minerals (chlorite, illite, montmorillonite, and kaolinite) and non-clay minerals (quartz, feldspar, calcite, and dolomite). The heavy minerals identified as species were zircon, tourmaline, rutile, garnet, olivine, hornblende, pyroxene, kyanite, and magnetic particles. The concentration of major oxides by geochemical analysis indicates a high content of SiO2 and CaO in the floodplain of the Tigris river.
Journal of Mediterranean Earth sciences, 2009
Heavy mineral assemblages of the Holocene sediments from the tigris river in northern Iraq include opaque minerals such as magnetite, chromite and/or chromian spinels, hematite, ilmenite, goethite and pyrite, and non-opaque minerals including epidotes, pyroxenes, amphiboles, garnet, zircon, tourmaline, rutile, kyanite, staurolite, olivine, sphene, apatite, white mica, biotite and chlorite. Mineralogical and chemical characteristics of the heavy minerals were determined using standard petrographic and electron microprobe analyses. Opaque minerals and epidotes increase in content downstream, mica decreases, whereas amphiboles, pyroxenes and garnet show irregular distributions. Chemical characteristics of selected heavy minerals suggest their derivation from a complex of metamorphic and igneous source rocks. Based on the mineralogical and geochemical signatures, heavy minerals closely reflect mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks, metamorphites, and the ophiolitic complexes of northeastern Iraq and southern turkey. Fig. 2 -Geological map of northern Iraq showing the geological formations from Ordovician to recent. Modified from the Geological Map of Iraq (1986).
Iraqi Geological Journal, 2020
This study tries to evaluate the sediments of Quaternary deposits with a depth from 8 to 24 meters, and determine the lights and heavy minerals with their origin. Three boreholes; Basrah, Thi-Qar and Missan, were selected, based on the grain size analysis of samples, three types of sediment were identified: silt, sandy silt, and silty sand. The statistical size parameters were applied to determine the energy and sedimentation environment, showed that the sediments of the study area were deposited in low-energy conditions. The sorting values ranged from poorly to very poorly, while the skewness ranged from strongly fine to near symmetrical skewed and kurtosis values ranged from platy to leptokurtic. The results of heavy minerals analysis proved the very low values comparative with light ones; Opaque was predominant in all study sites, accounting for about 50% of the heavy minerals and divided to mica minerals and Chlorite, Pyroxene, Amphibole, Zircon, Epidote, and Garnet, while Kyanite, Tourmaline and Staurolite. The light minerals are dominated by carbonate and quartz with few amounts of chert, evaporates, Feldspar, rock fragments and light muscovite. The difference in the values and diversity of heavy minerals in the study area indicates the multiple sources contributing to the deposits of the Mesopotamia Plain. The sources are limited between the rivers of Tigris, Euphrates and Shatt Al-Arab and the dust-fallouts, as well as the nearest formations and the Arabian shield.
Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 2019
Grain size and mineralogical characteristics of the stream sediments east of Abu Zeneima, southwestern Sinai, were examined using collaborative techniques. Thirty-two samples were collected from four main Wadis, namely, Nasieb, El Seih, Baba, and El Sahu. Wet and dry sieving as well as pipette method were used for grain size analysis. Heavy liquid separation, microscopic investigation, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to examine the mineralogical composition. The clay minerals are present mostly as kaolinite and illite. The heavy minerals are dominated by opaques, pyroxenes, amphiboles, zircon, tourmaline, rutile, epidote, kyanite, sillimanite, monazite, staurolite, barite, xenotime, and apatite. Autunite and goyazite are reported for the first time in these sediments. Autunite forms encrustation on colloidal iron oxide grains whereas goyazite is found as prismatic grains. The two minerals show considerable contents of rare earth elements, mainly Ce, La, Pr, Sm, and Nd. Texturally, the unimodal grain size distribution, the subangular to subrounded grains, and the poorly sorting class signify short transportation distance from one source area. Mineralogically, the low ZTR index indicates a mineralogical immature to sub-mature sediments. The prismatic ultrastable zircon, tourmaline, and rutile and the dominance of unaltered amphibole and pyroxene grains as well as absence of chlorite indicate that the source rocks are mainly the nearby exposed basement units. The presence of uranyl minerals and rare earth bearing phosphate minerals in these sediments reflect a contribution from the Paleozoic sedimentary successions.
kuwait journal of science, 2022
The quaternary sediments have been studied in four sections; Garmian area, Kurdistan Region, North East Iraq, which are multi-features, multi-sources, and variable lithological compositional characteristics. The grain size granulometry was used and identified, gravel, sand and mud. Gravelsized particles are partially producing a greater amount than sand and mud size in both sections (Sar-Qallah-1 and Salih-Agha). Statistical parameters such as (mean, mode, sorting, skewness and kurtosis), have shown that the sediments are very poorly sorted, very fine skewed and platykurtic. Petrographic studies of sediments under polarized microscope investigated that these sediments are predominately consisting of (chert and carbonate rock fragments), with the existence of few amounts of igneous and metamorphic rock fragments, feldspar and monocrystalline quartz. These fragments types are an indication of multiple source rocks originate from Ophiolites and thrust sheets from the Penjween area (North Iraq). Various types of heavy minerals are identified; opaque (hematite and pyrite), and nonopaque minerals (pyroxene, amphibole, epidote and zircon). X-ray diffraction technique is used to interpret clay mineralogy which indicates that chlorite and palygorskite are the main clay mineral with the presence of non-clay minerals such as quartz and calcite.
The heavy minerals in the clastic unit of the Lower Jurassic Amij Formation exposed in the western desert of Iraq were studied. The uppermost part of the clastic unit contains thin, placer-like black sandstone horizons that are radioactive and abnormally rich in heavy minerals (0.6e56%), dominated by opaque (65%) and transparent (35%) heavy minerals. The minerals, in the order of decreasing abundance are pseudorutile, goethite, zircon, hematite, magnetite, monazite, rutile, leucoxene, tourmaline, ilmenite, chromite, and few others. Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), microscopic and autoradiographic observations and analysis showed that the monazite is monazite-(Ce) type with an average composition of (Ce 0.39 Nd 0.16 La 0.19 Pr 0.04 Sm 0.02 Gd 0.02 Eu 0.01 Y 0$04 Th 0$06 U 0$01 Ca 0$05 Fe 0.01)(P 0$98 Si 0.03)O 4. Monazite consists predominantly of REE-oxides (57.93%) and P 2 O 5 (29.31%), with minor amounts of ThO 2 (6.60%), Y 2 O 3 (1.92%), UO 2 (0.76%), CaO (1.14%), SiO 2 (0.69%), and FeO t (0.17%). The dominant compositional substitution operating between REE and P were a mixture of the complex cheralite type substitution ([REE] À2 [Th][Ca]) and the coupled huttonite type substitution ([REE] À1 [P] À1 [Th][Si]). The chondrite-normalized REE distribution patterns of monazite show enrichment in LREE with positive Eu-and Pr-anomalies of 1.46 and 9.13, respectively. The median values of (La/Sm) CN and (La/Nd) CN ratios are 4.35 and 1.97, respectively. Zircon which is the dominant transparent mineral is Hf-rich that is composed of 30.61% SiO 2 , 57.58% ZrO 2 , 7.03% HfO 2 , 2.04% Y 2 O 3 , 0.56% ThO 2 , 0.19% UO 2 , and 0.19% Al 2 O 3 corresponding to a formula (Zr 0.909 Hf 0.065 Th 0$004 U 0$001 Y 0.031) S1.011 (Si 3$966 Al 0.028) S0.999 O 4. Rutile and tourma-line form 7% and 4% of the heavy minerals. Ilmenite which is one of the predominant heavy minerals forms 2.5% of the opaques because it is pervasively altered to Ti-Fe oxides. In addition of zircon and monazite, the chemical compositions of most of the other heavy minerals are also given in this study. The expected dominant source of heavy minerals and their host sandstones are most probably the felsic igneous and metamorphic complexes of the Arabian Shield, currently located ~600 kms to the south of the studied area. The heavy minerals were carried from the source area by northward moving rivers and sorted out by ocean waves as black sand concentrations at the delta mouth along the southern beaches of the Neo-Tethys Ocean under passive margin tectonic setting. This border was apparently bordering the current western part of Iraq during Upper Jurassic period.
Heavy minerals assemblage of sediments in Almanaqil Ridge, Gezira State, Sudan
Heavy mineral assemblage of sediments in Almanaqil Ridge, Gezira State, Sudan has been studied, to identify, and if possible, to know their source and transporting agent. Four sediment samples were analyzed for determinations heavy mineral assemblage. The separation of these minerals was carried out using bromoform (specific gravity 2.85). These were followed by slide examination under the petrographic microscope. Heavy minerals grains of soil samples collected from outside the study area (sample 1 and 2) were compared with those inside the study area (sample 6 and 7). The heavy minerals assemblages of Zircon, Tourmaline, Rutile, Silimatate, Andalusite , Garnet, Epidote, and Quartz indicated its derivation from mixed sources of acid igneous rock to medium and high grade metamorphic rocks. The calculated % ZTR (Zircon, Tourmaline, Rutile) values varied between 47.99% to 26.08 % in in the samples from outside the study area compared with values of those inside study area which varied between 12.92% to 17.95 % and the mean ZTR percentage indices was 37.035 % of outside the study area and 15.5% of those inside study area. The three most abundant were Quartz, Garnet and Andalusite with values 50.33 %, 34.2 % and 24.52, respectively. Heavy minerals assemblages in the sediments of study area and that outside the area indicated low Zircon Tourmaline Rutile indices. This index is used as a clue for the identification of the source and as measure of the maturity of the sediments. The low ZTR index might indicate mineralogical immaturity and mineralogical composition. Heavy sand mineralogy revealed that the origin of the sand in the area was the Nubian sandstone.
Mineralogy of Stream Sediments in the Gabal Kab-Amiri Area, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt
Al-Azhar Bulletin of Science
This study provides an information about the heavy mineral composition of stream sediments of Wadi Kab-Amiri, Wadi Kab Um El Abas and Wadi El Saqia in the central Eastern Desert of Egypt. Geological and mineralogical investigations reveal the significant potential of the stream sediments in all the wadis for radioactive anomalies. Mineralogy of the heavy mineral separates includs variable contents of rare metal-, Th-and U-bearing minerals. Monazite, thorite and allanite are recorded in addition to several Nb-Ta-bearing phasess. Electron microprobe and EDX analyses constrain on the variable contents of Th and U in most heavy minerals under investigation. Considering the proximal radiometric anomalies and similar mineralogical composition of the KabAmiriintrusion and the more significant episyenitemass, it is concluded that the investigated stream sediments are endogenic sediments with inherited radiogenic and mineral budget.
International Journal of Mining Science
Wadi (W.) Abu Rusheid area is located at the southern part of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, along and about 95 km of Marsa Alam city. The area could be reached from the Red Sea coast through W. El Gemal and then W. Nugrus along a desert track of about 45 km long. The area is characterized by low topographic features, where as the highest topographic features are about 509m above sea level, whereas the average wadi level is about 315 m above sea level. The area is dissected by Khour Abaleia, several gullies, NNW-SSE and ENE-WSW shear zones. The stream sediments are composite products of erosion and weathering and thus represent the source catchment area of the stream drainage network (Darnley, 1990 and Cocker, 1999). Stream sediments may be the natural sink of large amounts of chemical elements that derived from the drainage basin, where sediments possess a great capacity to accumulate and integrate those elements and their accumulate is dependent on the properties of the adsorbed chemical and the prevailing physicochemical conditions (El Nemr et al., 2007). The composition of clastic sedimentary rocks is controlled by several factors, which include source rock, weathering, erosion, deposition, transport, burial and diagenesis (Johnsson, 1993). The background levels of the rare metals; Sn, Nb, Y, Be and Li are higher than their corresponding world average abundance (Levinson, 1980) in normal soil. The high standard deviation values of Zr, Nb, Pb, Ga and Y reflect that these metals have wide concentration ranges. The abnormal Abstract: The loose stream sediments covering wadies of Abu Rusheid area are derived from the weathering of the different surrounding rocks. Thes are ophiolitic melange, consisting of ultramafic rocks and layered metagabbros set in a metasediment matrix; cataclastic rocks, including protomylonites, mylonites, ultramylonites, silicified ultramylonites; granitic rocks; and post-granite dykes (lamprophyre), pegmatite and quartz veins. The thickness of the stream sediments was determined by different geophysical techniques, which revealed that the depth to the surface of the basement rocks has an average value of about 21 m. Geochemical maps were constructed to delineate anomalous areas with abnormally high rare metal contents. The latter nearly the same as in the mineralized cataclastic rocks and lamprophyre dykes. The weak correlations between almost of these elements indicate that the element constituents are governed by many geochemical factors and are from different sources. According to the radiometric maps of the different radioactive elements, the high concentrations are close to the mineralized cataclastic rocks along the studied part of Wadi Abu Rusheid, especially in the upstream part. The investigated heavy minerals in the studied parts of the stream sediments can be classified according to their anion groups into the following: silicate minerals group (kasolite, uranothorite, zircon, garnet and titanite), phosphate minerals group (monazite and apatite), oxide minerals group (columbite, cassiterite, rutile, leucoxene, magnetite, hematite and ilmenite), carbonate mineral group (cerussite), sulfides minerals group (galena and pyrite). The preliminary assessment of some economic elements in stream sediments revealed that the ore metals in ton are: Zr (4936.93), Nb (978.98), Rb (1561.56), Zn (1297.3), Pb (1039.04), Y (1033.03) and Ga (240.24). Finally, this assessment need deeper investigations and requires more samples along grid patterns and at different depths.