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Chemical and spectroscopic characterization of tourmaline from the ancient Roman mines in the Eastern Desert of Egypt

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Abstract

Tourmaline occurrences are found in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, particularly at the Wadi El-Gemal area, which is the locality of famous beryl mines dated back to the Roman times including the so-called “Cleopatra’s Emerald Mines”. The collected tourmaline occurs in beryl-rich pegmatites and quartz veins. Infrared data of tourmaline indicate that dravite from three localities (Wadi Sikait, Wadi Um Sleimat and Wadi Um Addebbaa) can be distinguished based on the nature of the OH group and its vibrational bands. Also, reflectance spectra of fresh and altered dravite are distinguishable. Mineral inclusions (mostly hafnon zircon and REE-bearing apatite and monazite) in dravite affects the FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectra. Such spectra show influence of cationic substitutions in dravite, particularly M2+at the X-site and M3+ at the Y-site. Spectrometric measurements suggest that radioelements in tourmaline are not considerably high, whereas high radioactivity is restricted to the pegmatite bodies away from the metasomatic front with the serpentinite country rocks.

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Modified after Omar (2001)

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Nuclear Materials Authority (NMA) of Egypt for the logistic support during the field trips and for the spectrometric analyses. Access of the first author to the Electron Microprobe Laboratory at the Copenhagen University, Denmark, is greatly acknowledged. We offer special thanks to our colleagues at the Department of Chemistry, Cairo University, for facilitating spectroscopic investigation of some tourmaline specimens. The authors are grateful to the editors-in-chief, Dr. James W. LaMoreaux and Prof. Olaf Kolditz, for the careful editorial handling. Three anonymous reviewers gave valuable comments and recommendations that helped to increase the overall quality of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Galala University, New Galala City, 43511, Egypt

    Adel A. Surour

  2. Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, 12613, Egypt

    Adel A. Surour

  3. Nuclear Materials Authority of Egypt, B.O. Box 530, Maadi, Egypt

    Sayed M. A. Omar

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  1. Adel A. Surour
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Correspondence to Adel A. Surour.

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Surour, A.A., Omar, S.M.A. Chemical and spectroscopic characterization of tourmaline from the ancient Roman mines in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Environ Earth Sci 81, 78 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10215-0

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