The geography and geology of south-eastern EgyptBall, John
Science
The geography and geology of south-eastern Egypt
Ball, John
Geology -- Egypt; Physical geography -- Egypt
Felsites are frequently met with in a highly altered condition. The
commonest alteration, especially in dykes, is kaolinisation of the
felspars and a clouding of the whole rock with finely disseminated
iron oxides. In some dykes traversing the granite of Um Reit,
a bleaching action has reduced the felsite to the appearance
of a limestone. In other cases the rock has been devitrified and
indurated to a high degree; this is well seen in Gebel Igli el Iswid
(latitude 25°) and at Gebel Hadarba (latitude 22°), where extensive
hill-tracts consist of felsitic rocks of almost flinty hardness.
The quartz-felsites are in general among the youngest of the igneous
rocks of the district, since they commonly form dykes and intrusions,
not only in the schists, but also in the granites and other eruptive
rocks.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.—Quartz-felsite, Wadi Huluz [10,394],
× 10. _q_, quartz; _f_, felspar (orthoclase and oligoclase); _g_,
ground mass, showing flow structure round the porphyritic quartz
and felspar.]
The quartz-felsite of Wadi Huluz [10,394] occurs in considerable
masses about a kilometre below the water holes of Um Gerifat. In
the hand specimen, it is of granitoid appearance, with opalescent
quartz crystals two millimetres or more in diameter plentifully
scattered in a light greyish ground mass. The sp. gr. is 2·71. Under
the microscope the crystals of quartz are seen to have rounded
forms and to be accompanied by other porphyritic crystals of
orthoclase and oligoclase, often approximating to idiomorphic shape
(_see_ Fig. 10). The porphyritic constituents are embedded in a
cryptocrystalline ground mass, in which augite and minute grains of
quartz, felspar, and biotite can be made out, and there are some
strings and granules of epidote and fairly large specks of iron
oxides. The ground mass shows a fluidal arrangement, the little
biotite flakes in it being often arranged in lines which sweep
round the porphyritic crystals. The rock has undergone considerable
alteration, the felspar crystals being clouded and full of tiny
micaceous flakes of high double refraction; the epidote is also
doubtless due to the alteration of augite and other minerals in the
ground mass.
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