Mineral composition and environmental geochemistry of the beach sediments along the eastern coast of the gulf of suez , southwestern Sinai , Egypt / Osama Rahil Omar Shaltami ; Supervised Ahmed Mohamed ElKammar , Ebtisam Hossny Arafa

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty Of Science - Department Of Geology

This work attempts to assess the mineral composition and environmental geochemistry of the beach sediments along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Suez , southwestern Sinai , EgyptAs far as the author is aware , the published data on the beach sediments of the study area and their environmental geochemistry are very insufficientMost geological publications on Sinai deal with the basement rocks and the sedimentary succession with especial attention to mineralizationVery limited effort has been given to the beach sediments in SinaiThe studied beach sediments display an increase in sorting with decreasing mean grain sizeThe sand samples are clustered in the area of poor sortingThis indicates that the deposition and transportation occurred close to the source rocksMineralogically , the sediments are enriched in both non - opaque and opaque heavy mineralsThe opaque minerals in the study area are represented by iron - titanium oxides and sulphidesThe former minerals (eg , magnetite , ilmenite , hematite and their alterations) exhibit a variety of textures such as exsolution , alteration and replacement texturesMagnetite is the main constituent of the opaque mineralsThe heavy minerals are concentrated especially in the size fraction 63 - 125æmTitanite is the most abundant nonopaque mineral in the two size fractions ; 63 - 125æm and 125 - 250æmThe studied sediments are derived from different sourcesThe acidic igneous rocks and the sandstones are the main sources of the ultrastable heavy minerals such as zircon , tourmaline and rutileThe metamorphic rocks are evidenced by the presence of epidotes , bluish green amphiboles in addition to garnet , kyanite and stauroliteKyanite is commonly derived from schists or gneisses , while staurolite is commonly derived from crystalline schistsGarnet , biotite , epidotes , tourmaline and zircon are indicative of high - rank metamorphic rocksGreen hornblende is probably derived from the calc - alkaline granitoids or metamorphic rocksThe presence of augite and hyoersthene points essentially to basic igneous rocksGranites and pegmatites are the main source of monaziteHomogeneous magnetite being

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