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
The presence of augite along with the hornblende is difficult to
ascertain in the field or in hand specimens, and can as a rule only
be detected by the microscopic examination of thin sections. But
augite diorites are generally of somewhat darker aspect than normal
diorites in the mass, owing to a less abundance of felspar, and are
generally tougher under the hammer.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.—Augite-diorite, Wadi Um Hargal [11,535],
× 47. _h_, hornblende; _a_, augite, with celephytic border _c_, of
hornblende and iron oxide; _f_, felspar (labradorite); _ap_, apatite.]
An augite-diorite [11,535] which occurs on the pass at the head
of Wadi Um Hargal, near Gebel Kahfa, is a heavy (sp. gr. 2·87)
grey rock of medium grain, very fresh and hard, in which can be
seen lustrous black crystals mixed with a rather small quantity
of white felspars. In thin section, hornblende, the most abundant
constituent, is in fairly large allotriomorphic crystals, with well
marked cleavage and strong pleochroism (bluish-green to pale yellow),
containing abundance of irregular granules of iron oxides. The augite,
which is present to about one-third the amount of the hornblende,
is in crystals of similar size, and likewise showing well-marked
cleavage, easily distinguished by their pale brown colour, absence
of pleochroism, and higher extinction angles (about 40°); some of
the crystals show irregular cracking and clouding by decomposition
products, and are surrounded by celephytic zones of greenish matter of
rather lower double refraction containing flakes and strings of iron
oxide, probably representing a marginal alteration to hornblende. The
felspar, though considerably decomposed, still shows plagioclastic
twinning clearly, and appears from the extinction angles to be an
acid type of labradorite. The rock contains considerable amount of
magnetite scattered through it, often in fairly large irregular
grains, also a few small grains of apatite, and one or two small
granules of quartz.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.—Augite-diorite, Gebel el Anbat [10,411],
× 40. _pl_, plagioclase felspar; _a_, augite; _h_, hornblende,
arising from alteration of augite.]
The rock [10,411] which forms the dark hills called Gebel el Anbat,
near the head of Wadi Kharit,[131] is likewise an augite-diorite. In
the field it is seen weathered into rounded masses often resembling
boulders, of great hardness, and covered with a blackish-brown
skin. The sp. gr. is 2·97. Microscopic examination shows the rock,
which is very fresh, to be essentially of the same type as that last
described, but the augite is more abundant and so intimately mixed
with the hornblende as to suggest even more strongly an alteration
of augite to hornblende (_see_ Fig. 21).
=Mica-diorite.=
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