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Provenance, weathering, and paleoenvironment of the Upper Cretaceous Duwi black shales, Aswan Governorate, Egypt

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Abstract

The mineralogy and geochemistry of the Upper Cretaceous Duwi black shales of Nile Valley district, Aswan Governorate, Egypt, have been investigated to identify the source rock characteristics, paleoweathering, and paleoenvironment of the source area. The Duwi Formation consists mainly of phosphorite and black shales and is subdivided into three members. The lower and upper members composed mainly of phosphorite beds intercalated with thin lenses of gray shales, while the middle member is mainly composed of gray shale, cracked, and filled with gypsum. Mineralogically, the Duwi black shales consist mainly of smectite and kaolinite. The non-clay minerals are dominated by quartz, calcite, phosphate, dolomite, feldspar, with little gypsum, anhydrite, iron oxides, and pyrite. Based on the CIA, PIA, and CIW values (average = 84, 94, 95, respectively), it can be concluded that the litho-components of the studied shales were subjected to intense chemical weathering and reflect warm/humid climatic conditions in the depositional basin. The provenance discrimination diagram indicates that the nature of the source rocks probably was mainly intermediate and mafic igneous sources with subordinate recycled sedimentary rocks (Nubia Formation). Geochemical characteristics indicate that the Duwi black shales in Nile Valley district were deposited under anoxic reducing marine environments.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks members of the laboratory of the Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute, Egypt, for facilitating analytical work for the present research. Thanks also to the journal reviewers, for their very constructive and helpful comments as well as for editorial comments, which helped to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

    Samir M. Zaid, Oussama A. EL-Badry & Mahmoud A. Mohamed

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, Egypt

    Adel M. Akarish

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  1. Samir M. Zaid
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  2. Oussama A. EL-Badry
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Correspondence to Samir M. Zaid.

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Zaid, S.M., EL-Badry, O.A., Akarish, A.M. et al. Provenance, weathering, and paleoenvironment of the Upper Cretaceous Duwi black shales, Aswan Governorate, Egypt. Arab J Geosci 11, 147 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-018-3500-z

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