Schists of Nuwiba area, southeast Sinai, Egypt: Field, Petrographic, Geochemical and Radiometric Aspects

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Nuclear Materials Authority, Research Sector, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Nuwiba schists are located at the northernmost segment of the Arabian–Nubian Shield. They occupy two localities in the mapped area situated between Wadi Muqeibila and Wadi Taba. They considered as the oldest rock unit exposed in the mapped area. The schists are derived, by metamorphism of greywackes and pelites or pelitic greywackes sediments. These sediments were originally derived from felsic and intermediate igneous provenance and were deposited in a tectonic setting related to an active continental margin regime. The rocks show limited differences in their major element oxides content suggesting derivation from a common source or provenance, or at least from sources of similar composition. The averages of incompatible trace element patterns in the studied six schist samples compare more to the UCC pattern than the LCC and NASC ones. It is, thus, concluded that the studied metasediments were derived from granitic composition rocks of the upper continental crust. The chondrite-normalized patterns of REE reveal enrichment of the schist in the LREE and their depletion in the HREE with low negative Eu anomalies. The wide range of REE abundance is from 61.48 to 144.87 ppm. suggesting highly fractionated, K-rich granitic rock derivation. The average content of thorium is low but uranium is high relative to the average reported for the argillaceous rocks (Th = 12 and U = 3.7 ppm) due to their derivation origin and epigenetic processes.

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