Discussion of the paper by Galuskin and Galuskina (2003), “Evidence of the anthropogenic origin of the ‘Carmel sapphire’ with enigmatic super-reduced minerals”

Reply to the discussion of Galuskin and Galuskina (2023) “Evidence of the anthropogenic origin of the ‘Carmel sapphire’ with enigmatic super-reduced minerals” by Griffin et al. (2023)

“…This material was obtained from shallow pits, trenches or large diameter drill holes. With this extraction technology partial mixing of material taken from different levels cannot be excluded (https://www.slideshare.net/JamesAHCampbell1/shefagems-cpr-2019), hence the geological background of the Carmel sapphire setting and its "before-anthropogenic" time period confinement (Griffin et al, 2019a(Griffin et al, , 2023 are subject to doubt. The extraction of sedimentary material by the Shefa Yamim company took place in a technologically advanced area with a high level of human activity, where there is presently a series of technoparks with working factories involved in the production of various ceramics and aluminium.…”

“…We consider that the geochemical evidence for the natural genesis of Carmel sapphire provided in the discussion (Griffin et al, 2023), which is based on a comparison of the chemical characteristics of inclusions in Carmel sapphire and electrocorundum used for sandpaper production by only two producers (Litasov et al, 2019a), cannot be used to draw conclusions about other types of electrocorundum produced using different types of furnace feeds.…”

“…Comments and responses to Discussion by Griffin et al (2023) Below we use numbering corresponding to those in the Discussion by Griffin et al (2023).…”

“…At this point, we can close the discussion with two brief conclusions: (1) Griffin et al (2023) debate plenty of secondary issues that divert attention from the main object, 'white breccia', which is key to solving the problem of Carmel sapphire genesis; (2) 'white breccia' (in the form of individual samples) exists and consists of the waste of electrocorundum production. However we decided that readers can draw their own conclusions after reading our paper (Galuskin and Galuskina, 2023) and the discussion connected with it; we answer most of the remarks of Griffin et al (2023) below.…”

“…At the beginning of their discussion, Griffin et al (2023) thank us for our detailed investigation of corundum aggregates from Carmel Mt, Northern Israel, which, in their opinion, is "a useful supplement" to their previous publications. We would also like to thank Griffin et al, whose denial of the existence of 'white breccia' (corundum angular fragments of different size in white cement) simplifies our defence of our position.…”