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Copper-bearing encrustations: a tool for age dating and constraining the physical–chemical regime during the late Quaternary in the Wadi Araba, southern Jordan

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Abstract

The alluvial–fluvial drainage system in the Wadi Araba, southern Jordan, incised into Cambrian clastic sedimentary and felsic igneous rocks giving rise to a disseminated Cu–(Mn) mineralization of diagenetic and epigenetic origin along the southern branch of the Dead Sea Transform Fault (=DSTF). During the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, the primary Cu sulfides were replaced by secondary minerals giving rise to hypogene to supergene encrustations, bearing Cu silicates, Cu carbonates, Cu oxychlorides and cupriferous vanadates. They occur in fissures, coat walls and developed even-rim/meniscus and blocky cements in the arenites near the surface. The first generation cement has been interpreted in terms of freshwater vadose hydraulic conditions, while the second-generation blocky cement of chrysocolla and malachite evolved as late cement. The Cu–Si–C fluid system within the Wadi Araba drainage system is the on-shore or subaerial facies of a regressive lacustrine regime called the “Lake Lisan Stage”, a precursor of the present-day Dead Sea. Radiocarbon dating (younger than 27,740 ± 1,570 years), oxygen-isotope-based temperature determination (hot brine-related mineralization at 60–80 °C, climate-driven mineralization at 25–30 °C) and thermodynamical calculations let to the subdivision of this secondary Cu mineralization into four stages, whose chemical and mineralogical composition was controlled by the variation of the anion complexes of silica and carbonate and the chlorine contents. The acidity of the pore water positively correlates with the degree of oxidation. The highest aridity and most intensive evaporation deduced from the thermodynamical calculations were achieved during stage 3, which is coeval with late Lake Lisan. Geogene processes causing Cu-enriched encrustations overlap with man-made manganiferous slags. The smelter feed has been derived mainly from Cu ore which developed during Late Pleistocene in the region.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to F. Korte for doing the chemical analyses with XRF, D. Klosa for SEM analyses, and D. Weck who performed the XRD analyses. All investigations were carried in the laboratories of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources in Hannover, Germany. The Figs. 8 through 11 were drawn by H.J. Sturm (BGR). Isotope analyses were performed at the Geological–Paleontological Department of the University Kiel, Germany. The senior author would like to express his gratitude to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) who provided a financial grant for his stay at Amman, Jordan. I would like to thank also all my colleagues from the Geological Department for their support during my stay as a visiting professor at the University of Jordan in the field and in the classroom. We acknowledge with thanks the comments made by Zsolt Berner and Peter Möller who reviewed our paper for the International Journal of Earth Sciences. We extend our gratitude also to Wolf-Christian Dullo, Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Earth Sciences.

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  1. Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, P.O. Box 510163, 30631, Hannover, Germany

    H. G. Dill

  2. Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics, P.O. Box 510163, 30631, Hannover, Germany

    A. Techmer

  3. Geological-Paleontological Department, University Kiel, Olshausenstraße 40-60, 24118, Kiel, Germany

    R. Botz

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  1. H. G. Dill
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Dill, H.G., Techmer, A. & Botz, R. Copper-bearing encrustations: a tool for age dating and constraining the physical–chemical regime during the late Quaternary in the Wadi Araba, southern Jordan. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 102, 1541–1561 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-013-0877-5

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