Mineralogy and the Texture of the Basalt in Hail Region, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The study is carried out to list mineralogy and texture of the basalt in Hail region. The basalt flows belong to the Arabian Harrat volcanism. Cenozoic volcanism has produced 13, vast, basaltic fields in western Saudi Arabia, covering a total area of about 100,000 sq. km. The volcanism starts in the late Cretaceous time and continues periodically into the Holocene. The basaltic field presently investigated is known as Harrat Al-Hamad (or Harrat As-Shamah) which lies in northwestern Saudi Arabia, and continues northwards into Jordan. Mineralogical analysis of 20 rock samples indicates that the rocks are products of continental intra-plate magmatism; mostly as coarse-grained silica—under saturated olivine-rich alkali basalt. Mineralogical study shows that rocks are olivine, plagioclase, pyroxene, Nepheline and Opaque minerals. They correspond to alkali olivine basalts. Moreover, the main well-defined texture is intergranular, vesicular and amygdaloidal texture.