Contribution of remote sensing techniques to the recognition of titanite occurrences at Gabal El-Degheimi area, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt

AbstractThe present study aims at delimiting the titanite occurrences in the volcaniclastic metasediments and accessing the mineral chemistry of the titanite at Gabal El-Degheimi area. The study area is a part of the Arabian Nubian shield and includes serpentinites, arc volcaniclastic metasediments, older granites, Dokhan volcanics, Hammamat group post orogenic volcanics and younger granites. The processing of Landsat 8 images, field geological verification and geochemical analyses highlighted the distribution and occurrences of the arc volcaniclastic metasediments and their included alteration zones all over the study area. These rocks are composed of titanite, chlorite, calcite, epidote, sericite, muscovite and biotite in trace amounts, about 3wt% of TiO2 was recorded. Titanite mineral is the main carrier of titanium, calcium and silicon in the volcaniclastic metasediments