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Marbles and carbonate rocks from central Morocco: a petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical study

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Abstract

Petrographic, mineralogical, and stable isotopes (δ13C, δ18O values) compositions were used to characterise marbles and sedimentary carbonate rocks from central Morocco, which are considered to be a likely source of ornamental and building material from Roman time to the present day. This new data set was used in the frame of an archaeometric provenance study on Roman artefacts from the town of Thamusida (Kenitra, north Morocco), to assess the potential employment of these rocks for the manufacture of the archaeological materials. A representative set of samples from marbles and other carbonate rocks (limestone, dolostone) were collected in several quarries and outcrops in the Moroccan Meseta, in a region extending from the Meknes–Khenifra alignment to the Atlantic Ocean. All the samples were studied using a petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical methods. The petrographic and minerological investigations (optical microscopy, electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction) allowed to group the carbonate rocks in limestones, foliated limestone, diagenetic breccias and dolostone. The limestones could be further grouped as mudstones, wackestones–packstones, crinoid grainstones, oolitic grainstone and floatstones. Textural differences allowed to define marbles varieties. The stable carbon and oxygen isotope composition proved to be quite useful in the discrimination of marble sources, with apparently less discriminatory potential for carbonate rocks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Siena, Via Laterina 8, 53100, Siena, Italy

    Francesca Origlia, Elisabetta Gliozzo, Anna Gandin, Marco Meccheri & Isabella Turbanti Memmi

  2. Institute of Mineralogy and Geochemistry, University of Lausanne, Building Anthropole, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jorge E. Spangenberg

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  1. Francesca Origlia
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  2. Elisabetta Gliozzo
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  3. Anna Gandin
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  4. Marco Meccheri
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  5. Jorge E. Spangenberg
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  6. Isabella Turbanti Memmi
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Correspondence to Francesca Origlia.

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Origlia, F., Gliozzo, E., Gandin, A. et al. Marbles and carbonate rocks from central Morocco: a petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical study. Environ Earth Sci 66, 209–222 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1224-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1224-4

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