Summary
On the basis of the study of Palaeozoic ironstones from France, Algeria and Libya, some oolitization processes are documented, particularly intrasedimentary accretion and ‘snow-ball’ type accretion. In a single ooid, successive layers of the cortex can have been formed by different processes. Chemical analysis of an ooid cortex can help to reconstruct its history. Chamositic layers are always weathered in their outer part, with the leaching of aluminium and magnesium. Haematitic layers result from iron, and often titanium concentration in the weathered outer parts of primary chamositic layers. Crystallization of siderite appears to be late diagenetic, and often took place at the same time as, or after, the development of quartz overgrowths.
Summary
The Tindouf Basin is located, mainly in Algeria, in the SW part of the Saharan Platform. It comprises Cambro-Ordovician to Carboniferous marine formations overlain by the continental Cretaceous and Pliocene Hamada cover. On the southern limb of the Tindouf Basin several oolitic ironstone deposits occur within Silurian and Devonian sediments. They occupy an area of 500 × 40 km and have an east — west trend. These oolitic ironstone deposits are part of the major North African oolitic ironstone belt, extending more than 3000 km, from Zemmour to Libya. These occurrences are of the LOID type (Local Ironstone Deposition), and contain more than 10000 million tonnes of ironstone reserves (1500 million tonnes in the Silurian and 9200 million tonnes in the Devonian).
The various ironstones were formed in shallow marine environments such as barriers and deltas. The major features of these deposits are: (i) a palaeogeographical control of the sediment which was mainly formed on the flanks of uplifts; (ii) the occurrence of the ironstones at the top of coarsening-upward sequences, mostly located towards the end of major regressive cycles, particularly in the Pragian and Famennian; (iii) ooids developed in quiet environments such as lagoons or embayments, within an iron-rich mud; (iv) a southern, relatively close, iron source area and; (v) a palaeolatitudinal distribution giving successively cold and temperate climates.
The Palaeozoic history of the basin involved pericratonic sedimentation on the borders of a large epicontinental sea.
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