International Journal of Geosciences and Geomatics

ISSN: 2052-5591

Mapping of manganese potential areas using ASTER satellite data in parts

of Sultanate of Oman
Dr. Sankaran Rajendran and Dr. Sobhi Nasir

Department of Earth Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khod, 123 Muscat, Oman

KEYWORDS: Manganese, ASTER image processing, band ratioing, Principal Component Analysis, Wahrah
Formation, Oman.

ABSTRACT Peters, 1988; Kickmaier and Peters, 1990; Kickmaier,

1995; Shah and Khan, 1999; Marian et al., 2004;
Economically viable stratiform manganese
occurrences are found within the radiolarian cherts
belongs to the Late Jurassic-Cretaceous age of Ibrahim et al., 2010) but, no adequate significant
Wahrah Formation near Ras Al Hadd region, published work on the mapping of manganese
northern east margin of Oman. In this study, their potential areas using remote sensing technique,
occurrence and distribution are discriminated in which is used as an effective tool for mapping of
visible near infrared (VNIR) and short wave infrared different lithology, ore deposits and mineral
(SWIR) multispectral bands of Advanced Spaceborne resources by several workers (Abrams et al., 1983;
Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Crósta and Moore, 1989; Loughlin, 1991; Abrams and
using band ratio and Principal Component Analysis Hook, 1995; Rokos et al., 2000; Rowan and Mars,
(PCA) image processing methods. The processed 2003; Crósta and Filho, 2003; Cloutis et al., 2004;
ASTER band ratio ((1 + 3)/2, (3 + 5)/4, (5 + 7)/6) Mars and Rowan, 2006; Ramadan et al., 2006; Gad
image discriminated clearly the occurrence and and Kusky, 2007; Gabr et al., 2010; Ibrahim et al.,
spatial distribution of Wahrah formation in cyan 2010; Rajendran et al., 2011, 2012 and 2013;
colour. The RGB image of principal components PC3, Rajendran and Nasir, 2013a,b). Abdeen et al. (2001)
PC2 and PC1 identified well the occurrences of used ASTER RGB band ratios (4/7, 4/1, 2/3*4/3) and
manganese bodies in dark blue colour within the (4/7, 3/4, 2/1) for mapping of ophiolites,
Wahrah formation of the study area. The results of metasediments, volcaniclastics, and granitoids
image interpretations are verified in the field. The lithologic units of the Neoproterozoic Allaqi Suture in
samples collected from field were studied in the southern Eastern Desert of Egypt. Rouskov et al.
laboratory using thin and polished sections under (2005) used ASTER band ratios 2/1, 4/3 and 4/5 for
microscope and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analyses. the recognition of iron minerals versus alterations
This work demonstrates the sensor capability of and of iron oxides in yellow to reddish colours and
ASTER in the mapping of manganese potential areas the alteration minerals in bluish colour in the RGB
and the preliminary remote sensing study proposes image. Hewson et al. (2006) mapped the geology
for a large scale detailed exploration work on associated with manganese mineralization using
manganese in this region. The familiar image ASTER (multispectral) and airborne HyMap
processing methods used in this study have great (hyperspectral) data of the Woodie Woodie
potential in the mapping of manganese bodies and manganese mineral deposits of East Pilbara. They
associated lithology and as such are recommended explained that the data used allows the regional
for discriminating similar manganese mineralization mapping of the Archaean Carawine Dolomite, which
in other arid geographic regions of the world. hosts Woodie Woodie style of Mn mineralisation.
Gabr et al. (2010) studied the areas of high potential
INTRODUCTION gold mineralization in the North-Eastern Desert of
Egypt using ASTER data. They used the band ratio
Mapping of manganese ore deposit is high economic derived from the image spectra (4/8, 4/2 and 8/9)
interest. Research studies have been carried out on and linear-spectral unmixing image processing
the occurrence, mineralogy, geochemistry and origin methods to extract gold related alteration minerals
of manganese ores and deposits (Basta and Saleeb, based on n-dimensional spectral feature space. Their
1971; Crerar et al., 1982; Devaraj and Laajoki, 1986; results indicate that the methods are promising for

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the identification of alteration zones related to gold two geological units namely; Hawasina Nappe and
exploration. Rajendran et al. (2011) mapped the post-nappe units which consist of Tertiary and
magnetite bearing iron ore deposits from the Quaternary formations (Fig. 1). The Hawasina nappe
southern Peninsular India using ASTER data. They consists mainly of Hamrat Duru group rocks includes
have constructed ASTER band ratio ((1 + 3)/2, (3 + Al Jil formations (Pajv, PTRajb), Matbat Formations
5)/4, (5 + 7)/6) by summing the bands representing (TRmb1, Jmb2,), Guwayza formation (Jgw) and
the shoulders of absorption features as a numerator Wahrah formation (JKwac) of Late Permian to
and the band located nearest to the absorption Callovian ages and Al Aridh group consists Sayfam
feature as a denominator to map the iron ores and formations (TRsmv, TRsm) of Triassic age. The major
band ratio ((2 + 4)/3, (5 + 7)/6, (7 + 9)/8) for rock types of the formations are given in Figure 1.
associated lithology of granulite terrain based on The Wahrah Formation is dominated by red and
Amer et al. (2010) studied for lithological mapping of white radiolarian cherts and comprises a non-
Central Eastern Desert of Egypt. Rajendran et al. metamorphic sequence of fine-grained turbiditic
(2012) discriminated the occurrences of chromite limestones and interbedded siliceous shale. The
bearing mineralized zones in Semail ophiolite massifs stratiform manganese ores are occurred within the
of northern Oman Mountain using ASTER data by red cherts in this region and requires mapping for
decorrelated stretching, band rationing and principal their occurrences in the whole northern east part of
component analysis image processing techniques Oman (Kickmaier and Peters, 1990; Kickmaier, 1995).
(Crósta and Moore, 1989; Loughlin, 1991; Rokos et
al., 2000; Crósta and Filho, 2003; Cloutis et al., 2004; The Tertiary rocks are overlying on the Hawasina
Ibrahim et al., 2010; Rajendran et al., 2012). Results nappe consist the Upper Hadhramaut group Seeb
of their study show that the VNIR and SWIR spectral formation (Ese) of Middle Eocene age and Dhofar
wavelength regions are promising in detecting the group Shama formation (EOsa) of Late Eocene to
areas of potential chromite bearing mineralized Oligocene ages. These formations are mainly
zones within the ophiolite region and successful for carbonate rocks namely bioclastic limestone, marl
mapping of serpentinized harzburgite containing limestone, dolomite, calcarenite and sandstone. The
chromites. In 2013, they discriminated the Quaternary rocks of the area are low active sand
hydrothermal mineralized zones and associated dunes and meso ridges (Qed), aeolian sands (Qes),
listwaenites in parts of Central Oman using ASTER slope colluviums (Qcy-z), sabkhah (Qby-z), ancient
data and band rationing, principal component alluvial (Qtx) and sub-recent alluvial fan deposits and
analysis and the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) image terraces (Qfy, Qty).
processing techniques. The pyrolusite bearing
manganese ores can be discriminated well to some SATELLITE DATA
extent by stretching the grey scale image of spectral
bands that covers in VNIR-SWIR regions. The present The ASTER sensor on board in the earth observing
work aims to detect the manganese occurrences and system (EOS) TERRA platform launched during
discriminate the potential areas in arid region using December 1999 travels in a near circular, sun-
VNIR-SWIR ASTER multispectral spectral bands synchronous orbit with an inclination of
(rather than the expensive hyperspectral bands) and approximately 98.2º, an altitude of 705 km and a
the familiar band ratios and principal component repeat cycle of 16 days offers relatively improved
analysis image processing methods. The study is spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions. It
carried out on the potential occurrence of measures visible reflected radiation in three spectral
manganese bodies exposed within Wahrah bands (VNIR between 0.52 and 0.86 µm, with 15-m
Formation of Hamrat Duru group in Ras al Hadd spatial resolution) and shortwave infrared radiation
region of the Batain basin, northeastern Oman (Fig. in six spectral bands (SWIR between 1.6 and 2.43
1; Kickmaier and Peters, 1990). µm, with 30-m spatial resolution). ASTER sensor
records the data in band 3B (0.76–0.86 µm) with a
GEOLOGICAL SETTING backward looking angle that enables the calculation
of digital elevation models (DEM). In addition, it
The Batain plain area, one of low to moderate relief, receives emitted radiation in five spectral bands in
with extensive sand and gravel cover, extends some the thermal infra-red region between 8.125 and
250 x 70 km between the Batain coast to the east 11.65 µm, with 90-m spatial resolution (Fujisada,
and Wahiba Sands and Mastrichtian-Tertiary rocks 1995). The increase of spectral resolution in the
cover to the west and north (Shackleton et al., 1990). SWIR region (one spectral band for Landsat TM
The study area located near Ras al Hadd versus four spectral bands for ASTER), enhances the
(22°31'30.18"N; 59°47'31.71"E) is covered mainly by surface mineralogical and lithological mapping. In the

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present study, the 14 ASTER Level 1B (L-1B) spectral Comprehensive spectral absorption-compositional
bands date of February 02, 2006 were obtained from studies can provide important insights to the causes
NASA (https://LPDAAC.usgs.gov). The data was of spectral variations to use in the interpretation of
delivered in a Tag Image File Format which provides optical remote sensing data (Cloutis et al., 2004;

files for each band containing the imagery and an Ibrahim et al., 2010 Rajendran et al, 2012 and 2013;
ASCII text .met file containing the metadata. The Rajendran and Nasir, 2013). Massive manganese
imagery was checked for 0% cloud cover and sensor occurrence is a mixture of several minerals, usually
errors, such as banding and other geometric with pyrolusite and psilomelane. The spectral library
distortions. The data were radiometric and plot of major minerals of manganese ores such as
geometric corrected and georeferenced to UTM pyrolusite (MnO2), psilomelane ((Ba, H2O)2
WGS-84 projection. We chose the nine VNIR-SWIR Mn5O10), manganite (MnO(OH)) and rhodochrosite
spectral bands to process and interpret the region of (MnCO3) stacked from the USGS and JPL spectral
interest to map the manganese occurrences as libraries (Envi.4.8) are given in Figure 2.
discussed above using ENVI (4.8) and ArcGIS (10.1)
software’s and evaluated in field and laboratory The spectra of pyrolusite, psilomelane and
studies. The regional geological maps (Ministry of manganite minerals shows spectrally featureless,
Petroleum and Minerals, 1992 and 1993) were used quite low reflectance, strong absorption throughout
to verify the processed remote sensing data. the entire visible (0.3 - 0.7 µm) and reflective
infrared (0.7 - 3 µm) spectral regions (Fig. 2; Hunt
and Salisbury, 1971; Hunt, 1977; Clark et al., 2003;
Ibrahim et al., 2010) due to the presence of
predominant Mn-O molecules in its contents. The
diagnostic characteristics of manganese carbonate,
namely rhodochrosite (MnCO3) shows strong
absorption features in the visible regions (0.3-0.7
µm) due to the Mn-O bonds and sharp absorption
near 2.3 µm in the infrared region due to the C-O
bonds (Abrams et al., 1988; Mars and Rowan, 2010;
Rajendran and Nasir, 2013b) occurred in its contents.

The infrared spectral analyses of six samples

representing the manganese ore types (manganese
and manganese – iron ores) of Maliek deposits of
Southern Eastern Desert, Egypt by Ibrahim et al.
(2010) further confirms the absorption bands of
pyrolusite and ramsdellite (MnO2) at the wave
lengths of 350–400 cm−1 and 800–900 cm−1 due to
metal-oxygen stretching or lattice vibrations and
psilomelane absorption band at a wave length of
3,400 cm−1 due to O–H bonding.

Figure 1: Geology of study region occurred near Ras Al Hadd of Al-

Batain basin of NE Oman margin (Ministry of Petroleum and
Minerals, 1993).

IMAGE ANALYSIS
Spectral characteristics of manganese minerals

Manganese deposits have favourable spectral

absorptions characters for remote identification. The
reflectance spectrum of manganese ores depends on
the presence of major minerals composition of its
surface, mainly pyrolusite usually a mixture of the
Figure 2: Spectral plot of manganese minerals stacked from USGS
whole rock mineralogy and weathering minerals. and JPL spectral libraries

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Figure 3: Image spectra of 14 ASTER spectral bands shows

diagnostic absorption of manganese in VNIR and SWIR regions (1-9
spectral bands, low reflectance) and strong emission in TIR region Figure 4: ASTER RGB image of band ratio (1+3)/2, (3+5)/4 and
(10-14 spectral bands). (5+7)6 of study region (legends as existed in Fig. 1).

Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

Band Ratio
Further to confirm their occurrences, we studied the
We studied the image of 14 ASTER spectral bands application of Principal Component Analysis on
and collected the image spectra (Fig. 3) over the satellite data of study region. In the PCA technique,
manganese occurrences (rich in pyrolusite, Peters, the relationship between the spectral responses of
1988; Kickmaier and Peters, 1990; Kickmaier, 1995) target minerals or rocks and numeric values
of study region, which showed the diagnostic extracted from the eigenvector matrix is used to
absorption features throughout the entire VNIR and calculate the Principal component (PC) images. Using
SWIR regions (in 1-9 ASTER spectral bands with low this relationship, one can determine which PCs
reflectance value) as described above (Fig. 2) due to contain the spectral information due to the minerals
the absorption of Mn-O bonds contrast to TIR region and whether the digital numbers (DNs) of pixels
(in 10-14 ASTER spectral bands), which is more containing the target minerals had high (bright) or
reflective due to the emission of energy from Mn-O low (dark) values (Crósta and Moore, 1989; Loughlin,
bonds of the manganese occurrences (Rajendran and 1991; Rokos et al., 2000; Crósta and Filho, 2003;
Nasir, 2013a). Rajendran et al., 2012). In the PCA of 9 ASTER VNIR-
SWIR spectral bands, the first three high order
The absorption found in band 12 in the image principal components (PC1, PC2, and PC3) have over
spectra is due to the contents of silica present in 99% of the spectral information; hence these have
chert which is associated with manganese in this been widely used for lithological mapping rather
region (Ninomiya, 2004; Ninomiya et al., 2005). than the subsequent low order principal components
(PC4, PC5, PC6, etc.) which usually contain less than
As discussed above, based on the spectral 1% of spectral information and they contain low
absorptions characters of manganese minerals, we signal-to-noise ratios (Amer et al., 2010; Rajendran
processed the 9 ASTER VNIR-SWIR spectral bands et al., 2012). However, some of the higher order
using the band ratio ((1 + 3)/2, (3 + 5)/4, (5 + 7)/6) to principal components provide subtle information
discriminate the occurrences of manganese and about the occurrence of mineral and rock types that
associated lithological informations. The result of are spatially dominant in the image (Amer et al.,
analyses is given in Figure 4 (Rajendran et al., 2011). 2010). In this study, PCA is applied on the 9 ASTER
VNIR-SWIR spectral bands (Richards and Xiuping,
1998; Rajendran et al., 2011, 2012) of study region
and the results of analyses are given in Figures 5 and
6. The pre-treatment and processing of ASTER
images for above said techniques are followed as
stated in Abdeen et al. (2001) and Amer et al. (2010).

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chert of the formations. The cyan colour of Wahrah

formations may be due to the presence of silica
contents in the red and white radiolarian chert,
shale, calcarenite and calcirudite rocks of the
formations. The rocks rich in carbonate shows pink
colour that can be noted in the zoomed image as
pink spots within the formations. The formations are
occurred as chains of small mounts and folded in the
field appeared clearly on the image. The occurrences
of basaltic pillow lava and andesites in Al Jil (Pajv)
and Sayfam (TRsmv) formations are not
discriminated well due to their minor occurrences.
Figure 5: PCA plot shows the first few bands with maximum data The other formations namely Al Jil (PTRajb), Matbat
and increase of noise in subsequent bands.
(TRmb1; Jmb2), Guwayza (Jgw) and Sayfam (TRsm)
formations are discriminated by bright pink to red
colours due to the presence of rich carbonates in the
calcirudite, carbonate boulders, micritic limestone
with pelagic bivalves, radiolarian cherts, calcarenite,
turbiditic quartz sandstone and shale rocks of the
formations. The formation of magabreccia (PTRajb of
Al Jil and TRsm of Sayfam formations) exhibits coarse
texture on the image. The Tertiary group Seeb (Ese)
and Shama (EOsa) formations consists bioclasitc
limestone, calcarenite, marl subordinate sandstone,
bioclasitc marl limestone and dolomite rocks are
appeared as dark pink to red colours due to the
presence of more carbonate contents similar to the
carbonate formations of Hawasina nappes. The
Quaternary formations consist of alluvial sand (Qed,
Qtx, Qfy and Qty), aeolian sand (Qes), and colluviums
(Qcy-z) deposits show shades of dark blue to green in
Figure 6: Principal Components RGB image (R: PC3, G: PC2 and B:
colours. The Sabkhah (Qby-z) formations appear in
PC1) of study region (legends as existed in Fig. 1).
dark pink to red colours similar to Tertiary group of
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION formations. All delineated above formations are able
ASTER band ratio to study with the geology of the study region (Fig. 1).
The interpretation shows that the ASTER spectral
The colour composite image formed by combining bands (having relatively high spectral spatial
ratio bands (1 + 3)/2 in Red; ((5 + 7)/6) in Green and resolutions) and the developed ratio are capable in
((3 + 5)/4) in Blue shows valuable information on the differentiating the Wahrah formations which contain
occurrences of manganese bodies and associated manganese occurrences and the different lithological
lithological units and boundaries (Fig. 4) of the study units of the study region.
region. The occurrences of manganese can be
recognised by dark blue colour spotted (an example ASTER principal component analysis
arrows marked area, zoomed part as inset) in the
northern east part of study region within the Wahrah Though, the band ratio works as well in
formations (JKwac) appears in cyan colour. The discriminating certain formations of the study region,
manganese ore appears in dark blue colour (Fig. 4) in an attempt is made to confirm their discrimination
the region is due to the strong spectral absorption of and distinguish the absorption characters of
manganese minerals (Hunt and Salisbury, 1971; manganese and associated rocks by correlating
Hunt, 1977; Kickmaier and Peters, 1990; Clark et al., spectral bands and data variance through principal
2003; Ibrahim et al., 2010; Rajendran et al., 2011). component analysis as discussed above. The analysis
The shades of blue and dark blue area (below the of nine ASTER VNIR-SWIR spectral bands of study
arrows marked area and in other parts) occurred region using PCA shows that the first band contains
within the Wahrah formations are due to the the largest percentage of data variance and the
absorption of irons that are in the ferruginous red second PCA band contains the second largest data

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variance, and so on; the last few PCA bands contain Field and laboratory studies
less than 1% of spectral information and appear
noisy because they contain very little variance in the Systematic field verifications are carried out on the
original spectral data. The first three bands are occurrences of manganese ores and associated rock
segregated with the maximum data variances over formations discriminated on the image by difference
99% of spectral informations (see spectral plot, Fig. in tones and are verified at several locations for their
5). Therefore, we used the three high order principal occurrences, distributions and contacts and traverse
components PC1, PC2, and PC3 for better based samples were collected during May, 2012 near
discrimination of manganese occurrences and Ras Al Hadd region. The importance is given to
associated lithological units, rather than the manganese ore occurrences and associated cherts of
subsequent low order principal components (4, 5, 6, Wahrah formation of Hamrat Duru group. In field,
etc.). The RGB image derived from the combination the occurrences of stratiform manganese ores within
of PC3, PC2 and PC1 bands is given in Figure 6. the cherts of Wahrah Formation (Figs. 7a, b) are
confirmed. The cherts mainly consists of ribbon
The image (Fig. 6) discriminates well almost all the radiolarian cherts and siliceous clay interbeds
formations including the Wahrah formation which exposed continuously over several hundred meters
consist the manganese occurrences in the region. as chain of hills with the occurrences of manganese
The occurrences of manganese bodies appear clearly ores along strike in vertical sequences (Fig. 7a). Their
in dark blue colour more in the northeast part of the occurrences can be classified into (i) brown cherts
study region detected due to the absorption of (with homogeneous distribution of Mn, Fig. 7c); (ii)
energy by manganese bearing minerals that occurred laminated cherts (with enrichment of Mn particles to
within the cherts of Wahrah formations which fine laminae in variable thickness 0.01-0.2 cm), (iii)
appears in shades of green colours due to the layered Mn-cherts (with Mn enrichment to layers
presence of rich silica in red and brown cherts (see thicker than 0.2 cm, Fig. 7a); (iv) black siliceous
inset in Figure 7). The shades of blue and dark blue cherts (dark brown to black Mn rich cherts, Fig. 7d);
area (below the arrows marked area and in other (v) nodular Mn-aggregates in red cherts (with
parts) occurred within the Wahrah formations are elliptical or oval nodules of variable size <1-8 cm, Fig.
due to the absorption of irons that are in the 7e) as studied by Kickmaier (1995) and Kickmaier and
ferrugenous red chert of the formations. The Peters (1990). Large scale enrichment of manganese
occurrence of manganese, in dark blue colour within is observed in the folded horizon (see insets of
the shades of green colour, can be distinguished Figures 4 and 6). The manganese horizon starts from
from the shades of blue colour that represent the brown cherts to manganese-layered cherts and high
ferrugenous cherts. The other formations of Hamrat manganese-rich black siliceous cherts are occurred at
Duru group consists of red and white radiolarian the center of the sequence (Figs. 7f, g). The
cherts, shale, quartz sandstone, micritic limestone occurrence of highly weathered and fragmented
with pelagic bivalves, calcarenite and calcirudite ferrugenous red cherts and developed iron residues
rocks appear in purple or shades of purple in colours in and around of formations are also observed (insets
due to presence of silica, silicates and carbonates. in Figure 7a). In field, the manganese appears as
The Tertiary group formations are shown in dark pink gray-white and show metallic lustre, brittleness,
to red in colours. The Quaternary formations appears small nodular segregations (Fig. 7d) and
in orange to the shades of light green colours. The concentrated as pyrolusite mineral masses (Fig. 7g)
Sabkhah formations appear in dark pink to red with negligible amount of iron minerals. The layers
colours similar to Tertiary group of formations. The are parallel to the bedding of cherts (Fig. 7g) but
interpretations show clearly the occurrences of have an irregular surface. The chert layers occurred
manganese ores and the analyses better within the massive manganese is typically black in
discriminated the rock units those associated with colour, more or less homogeneous fine texture and
manganese bodies, the manganese potential areas of shows the presence of fine manganese laminae (Fig.
the study region. The principal component analysis 7g). Occasionally, the black part of the chert is
(RGB image of PC3, PC2, and PC1; Fig. 6) is proved bounded by intense brown chert. The occurrences of
powerful in discriminating the occurrences of nodular-shaped manganese-segregations are found
manganese ore in Wahrah formations and the in muddy cherts. These are slightly elongated and
associated rock units of the study region. The results parallel to bedding (Fig. 7e). The occurrence of
obtained from the ASTER band ratios and PCA manganese is also found associated with carbonatite
images are verified in the field and studied in the observed at few places within the cherts of Wahrah
laboratory as discussed in the following section 6. formation (Fig. 7h; Nasir et al., 2011).

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The polished surface of Mn-rich cherts of the region evidences of the strong spectral absorptions (dark
shows homogeneous distribution of fine grained blue) on the image interpretations. The minimum
manganese-segregations (pyrolusite, 2mm to 7mm in and maximum values of selected major and minor
sizes) and can be unambiguously determined in black elemental chemical composition of Mn bodies of Ras
siliceous cherts (i.e. as disseminated, Fig. 8a). No Al Hadd and Mn-rich cherts of Al Hammah regions
sharp contacts between the manganese-rich laminae (Kickmaier, 1995) are given in Table 1.
and the chert with disseminated manganese were
observed. The manganese-layer consists of
amorphous pyrolusite and microcrystalline
chalcedonic quartz. Microscopic thin section study
shows the presence of pyrolusite as the principal
manganese mineral. It has high reflectivity (Fig. 8b),
distinct bireflection and strong anisotropic
characters (Figs. 8c, d; Ibrahim et al., 2010).
Pyrolusites exhibit as well-crystallized euhedral
prismatic or spindle shaped crystals and are radially
distributed (Fig. 8d). The presence of cryptomelanes
are found in gray colour, varying from dull gray to
bright gray colours, commonly occurred as
concentric rhythmic bands with concavo-convex
surfaces and show mammillary botryoides giving rise
colloform textures (Fig. 8c; Ibrahim et al., 2010).
These are medium to high reflectivity and weak
anisotropism. The accessory minerals namely calcite,
quartz, apatite and chlorite are observed. Quartz
occurs as veinlets and well-developed crystals
crushed due to deformation. Apatite is found as rod-
like grains with high relief and parallel extinction
scattered within manganese matrix. Chlorites found
as fibrous grains showed blue interference colour in
the ore minerals.

The samples collected from the field are analyzed by

the X-Ray powder Diffraction (XRD) method to
evaluate the occurrence of manganese minerals of Figure 7: Field photographs (Location M in Figs. 4 and 6) shows a.
and b. stratiform manganese occurrences within red cherts, c. the
the region. The results of selected XRD analyses are
brown cherts interbedded with siliceous clay, d. the black siliceous
given in Figure 9, which confirms the presence of cherts with Mn occurrences e. the nodular Mn-aggregates in red
major manganese minerals such as pyrolusite and cherts, f. the occurrence of manganese at the center of brown
cryptomelane (Figs. 9a, b) in the samples. The cherts, g. the Mn layers are parallel to the bedding of cherts and h.
the Mn and carbonatite occurrences within Wahrah Formation.
occurrences of manganite are also evidenced in the
analyses. In laboratory, the heating of manganese
(mineral pyrolusite - manganese dioxide) is formed a
charcoal fire. The heat and carbon in the charcoal
separated oxygen from the pyrolusite, leaving a
metallic manganese residue.

The mineralogical, geochemical and sedimentalogical

characters of similar stratiform manganese of the
Wahrah Formations of Ras Al Hadd and Al Hammah
regions are studied by Peters (1988), Kickmaier and
Peters (1990), and Kickmaier (1995). Literature
review shows that Mn bodies are characterized by
the presence of high Mn, extreme Mn/Fe ratios and
Figure 8: a. The polished sample of Mn-rich chert shows the
by low minor element (e.g. Ni, Cu, Co) contents occurrence of fine grained manganese and microcrystalline quartz
(Kickmaier, 1995) which are the supportive vein, b. the microphotographs shows the occurrence of pyrolusite,

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cryptomelane and chert under the nicols parallel and (25 x), c.
rocks over the processed image are verified through
under the nicols crossed (25 x) and d. the occurrence of prismatic
and spindle shaped pyrolusite (nicols crossed, 35 x) in massive ore. field and laboratory studies and proved that the
applied methods are successful. The studied
techniques are time- and cost-effective in the
mapping of manganese occurrences and associated
formations and thus we recommend to use the
techniques in the arid region anywhere in the world.
Moreover, this work demonstrates the sensor
capability of ASTER in providing informations on the
occurrences of manganese, which is valuable for
mineral prospecting and exploration activities. The
preliminary remote sensing study recommends for a
large scale detailed exploration work on the
occurrences of manganese in this region.

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to NASA Land Processes

Distributed Active Archive Center User Services,
USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science
(EROS) Center https://LPDAAC.usgs.gov) for
providing the ASTER data. The XRD analytical help
extended by Mr. Saif Amer Al-Maamari, and the
preparation of micro thin sections by Mr. Hamdan
Saif Al-Zidi, Department of Earth Sciences, Sultan
Qaboos University are thankfully acknowledged.

References

Abdeen, M.M., Allison, T.K., Abdelsalam, M.G.,

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