UNIVERSITY OF SIERRA LEONE

FOURAH BAY COLLEGE

FACULTY OF PURE AND APPLIED SCIENCES

GEOLOGY DEPARTMENT

CROSS COUNTRY FIELD EXCURSION REPORT

MODULE: GEOL 216 -FIELD GEOLOGY

SUBMITTED BY

NAME: ABDULRAHMAN JALLOH

REG NO: 38207

LEVEL: 4

SIGNATURE: ……………

CROSS COUNTRY FIELD EXCURSION REPORT. FIELD GEOLOGY (GEOL 216)Page 1

TABLE OF CONTENT

Literature review on the geology of Sierra Leone

Field report

DAY 1
1.1 Rokel/ devil hole
1.2 Okra hill quarry
1.3 Makeni quarry
1.4 Tapri quarry
DAY 2
2.1 Romeni [gf508845]
2.2 Gbinti [gf 508845]
2.3 Roktolon [gf684964]
2.4 Katik vilage [gf 694950]
Day 3
3.1. Rotombo taua
3.2. Sogbone bridge
3.3. Mange bridge
Day 4
4.1. Mile 109/110 quarry
4.2. Mile 113/112
4.3. Matele to makeni
4.4. Masaka to 5 mile
Day 5
5.1. Snake quarry
5.2. Magbas village
5.3. Road cutting
5.4. Mena hill traverse

CHAPTER ONE

The geology of Sierra Leone

Most part of Sierra Leone is covered by rocks of Archean to Proterozoic in age. This describes rocks
that form parts of the West African Craton.

The rocks are generally bounded by a dipping trend on the west and intense ductile deformation
which produces very fine grained granite. The geology has a general trend of NW-SE and is divisible
into two major tectonostratigraphic units. The eastern one is part of the stable Precambrian West

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African Craton and consists of high- grade metamorphic rocks and granitic gneisses and the western
unit contains elements of an orogenic belt named the ‘Rokelides’ or ‘Rokel River Group’ that was
deformed during the Pan- African tectonothermal event, about 550 Ma ago.

The geology of Sierra Leone is divided into three main parts. These are:

A. The basement

B. Intrusive

C. Super crustal

A. BASEMENT

This consists of granite which date from early archean and includes coarsely crystalline granites,
quartz granulites and hematitic granulites underlying the whole of the suppercrustal belt of the
greenstone terrain. Being the main basement rock implies it had suffered various deformational
processes that had obliterated it original structure or form.

The complex is mainly Leonean in age. Two major episodes of deformation, granitisation and
metamorphism can be recognized.

1. The younger Liberian episodes (2700 million years)

2. The older Leonean episode (2900 million years)

The basement is subdivided into three groups

1. Syn-kinematic granite migmatite

2. Late kinematic granite

3. Homogeneous syn-kinematic granite

Rocks of this basement are characterized by pink and grey coloration of which the main rock types are
quartzo-feldspartic gneisses, synkinematic granite and migmatite. They are of both granite and diorite
composition. Therefore, they collectively termed as granodiorite composition. Massive crystal of both
plagioclase and microcline grading to migmatite due to high temperature condition involve in their
formation.

B. INTRUSIVES

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This comprises largely of batholitic rocks. They are the youngest of all the rock types in the Country
as they generally intrude either the basement or super crustal rocks. They show variation in
mineralogy

C. THE SUPPERCRUSTAL

This consists of a sequence of rocks overlying the basement rocks and is believed to be younger than
the Basement complex. It is composed of greenstone and schist found on the Basement complex.
They are called suppercrustal because they were thought to be deposited on the basement rocks.
The supercrustal is sub-divided into two:

1. The Upper Metavolconics

2. The Lower Metasedimentary

1. The upper Metavolconics

They formed a kind of basic and ultrabasic rock sequence within the supercrustal and are mainly
amphibolite, serpentinite schist and talc-chlorite schist. The metabasite is mainly composed of
amphibolite with high concentration of hornblende. They are strongly foliated and are associated with
high stress zone.

2. The lower metasedimentary

This consist mainly of quartzite and BIF, the quartzite might have been formed by the metamorphism
of sandstone or the reworking of gneisses with high concentration of quartz (SiO2).

These are also further subdivided into six main groups. These ar:

1. Kambui Super Group

2. Kasila Group

3. Marampa Group

4. Rokel River Group

5. Saionya Scarp Group

6. Bullom Group

1. Kambui super group:

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These include those greenstone belts whose origin pre-dated the Liberian Orogenic Episode and
which were laid down on a basement floor of gneisses and granitoids. The latter episode is equated
with the 2700-Ma Liberian Age Province (Hurley and others, 1971), hence the age of the Kambui
supergroup is 2700Ma. It includes the greenstone belts of the Sula Group and is the more dominant
outcrop of the greenstone belts. The Sula group is subdivided into:

1. Upper Tonkolili formation: It consists of a series of meta- sedimentary rocks.

2. Lower Sonfon Formation: It also consists of metavolcanic rocks

2. Kasila group

Has a NNE trend. It consists of series of basic granite, sedimentary rocks that have been
metamorphosed and varieties of gneisses. The lack of predominant ultra-mafic lithology
differentiates it from the Sula group. It was formed by the Archean terrain now represented by the
West African craton.

3. Marampa group

These are low grade supracrustal rocks lying west of the main group of supracrustals. It represents
argillaceous and ferruginous metasedimentary sequence. It lies adjacent to and on the Western side of
the RRG. It consists of two types of formation

1. Lower Matoto Formation

2. Upper Roktolon Formation

The upper Roktolon formation is further divided into three members;-

1. The Massiemera member

2. The Mabole member

3. The Massaboign member

4. Rokel river group

This is located adjacent to the Marampa group. It consists of both sedimentary and volcanic rocks
which were deposited unconformably on the basement rock. It has imprints of the Leonean orogenic
epi sode. It is believed to have formed by the action of plate collision and is generally younger than
the Marampa. The sedimentary rocks include conglomerate, sandstone and clay. Six (6) divisions are
recorgnised and they are listed below based on their stratigraphy.

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6. Kesewe hills formation

5. Taia formation

4. Mabole formation

3. Teye formation

2. Makani formation.

1. Tabae formation.

The Tabae formation is subdivided into three (3) sub formations/members (Culver et al, 1975). These
are: Dodo, Taban and Tiban

5. Saioyana Scrap group :

It forms a small intrusion in the North West corner of Sierra Leone. It rests unconformably on the
Archean granite rocks and on the Rokel River Group Conglomerate and is believed to be late
Ordovician age (Reid and Tucker, 1972).

6. Bullom group

This occurs on the coastal plain of sierra Leone and extends up to 50km inland in up to 40km above
sea level. It rests unconformably upon the Basement Complex and the Freetown Igneous Complex. It
is formed by unconsolidated clay and is believed to be of recent age.

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Fig.1 Geological map of Sierra Leone showing the different lithologies

FIELD REPORT

DAY 1

1.1. ROKEL/DEVIL HOLE

Rocks within this locality comprises predominantly of unaltered and altered gabbroic rocks; gabbro,
troctolite, norite, dunite and pyroxene. The complex principally consists of ranges of mountains
separated into zones based on mineralogical composition and topography. The orientation of these set
of mountains implies that the complex was formed probably from numerous injection of magma
rising simultaneously from the magma chamber. Some of the rocks found at this locality have been
altered by the process of weathering transforming into iron bearing laterite. Laterites are highly
weathered red soils rich in iron and aluminium oxides. They possess a distinctive reddish-brown
colouration which is as result of the iron oxide present and are developed by persistent weathering of
the underlying parent rock.
The actual Chemistry behind the lateritic formation is that certain soluble minerals in rocks goes into
solution when comes into contact with rain water. This creates pathways for the entering of other
fluids that speed-up the weathering process. The iron and aluminium on the other side being insoluble

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remains and form their oxides and hydroxides which give rise to the characteristic reddish brown
colouration in the rocks and this red colouration is as a result of laterization. The dark colours are due
to the presence of iron (II).

Fig.2 An altered Gabbroic rock covered with laterite

1.2. OKRA HILL QUARRY

This locality is a typical lithology of the Kasila Group. The colour of the rocks in this locality is dark
grey, light brown and white. The grain size is medium to coarse and the mineralogy is amphibole,
quartz, feldspars and hornblende. It consists of medium grade metamorphic rocks with banding of
mafic and felsic in composition. The rocks in this locality have multiples of foliations because of the
mineral alignment in which the dip and strike can be determined. The foliations in the rocks indicate
that this rocks where formed by the regional metamorphism of basic igneous rocks. The rocks
observed are metamorphic rocks and it is an amphibolite and their protolith is basic rocks. On
observing the outcrop of the amphibolite, we found out that it is surrounded by the Bullom sediments
which are younger than the amphibolite rock. The feature portrayed by the amphibolite rock is an
inlier which infers that the amphibolite was covered by the Bullom sediments which was weathered
and eroded, exposing the amphibolite to the surface. It is an erosional inlier because the exposure of
the amphibolite caused by the erosion. There are series of fractures cleavage on the walls of the
quarry which were probably formed as a result of blasting during quarry activities.
There is also a quartz vein observed at the locality (figure 1) and this vein is being formed as a result
of partial melting. The vein patterns on rock surface show a series of folded pattern (figure 2). The
veins also show a boudinage structure in which the vein is broad in some part and thin in other part in
which the area has suffered some amount of external forces.
There is also a change in mineral composition of some rocks within the quarry by which Biotite and
hornblende are being altered and then converted to chlorite which gives it greenish colouration. This
is a low grade metamorphic mineral and chloritization is the process of its formation which was

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clearly obvious in the field. Yellowish mineral were also observed in some part of the quarry which
described as pyrite. The rocks are Striking 294 WNW with a Dip of 062 and the dip direction is NE.
The GPS for this locality are: UTM =28; Easting= 0738256; Northing= 0936354;

Fig.3: Dark Amphibolites showing A= quartz vein B=vein pattern on rock surface showing series of
folded white minerals.

1.3. MAKENI QUARRY NEAR ROKEL BRIDGE- MILE 56

The rocks in this site are also part of the Kasila group. Colours of the rock chipped from hand
specimen are reddish brown, white, grey to dark grey and greenish and contains both mafic and felsic
portions in an alternating banding. The mineralogy observed includes pyroxene, garnets, feldspars and
quartz. The rocks contain fractures which are possibly due to the Quarry miners and the fracture
offsets is 1cm. Hence the rock exhibits a gneissose porphyroblastic texture. Garnet is a reddish brown
mineral which contains Al³⁺ and because of the presence of Aluminium ion indicates that their parent
materials are from pelitic sediments. The rock outcrop found out that, the garnets in the gneiss vary in
concentration as some parts are highly concentrated with the garnet while some are less concentrated
and other parts have no garnet at all. The parts without garnet could have originated from non pelitic
and metamorphosed. The rock is a high grade metamorphism and the grade of the metamorphism
increases as we move along the kasila group i.e. increased in temperature because of the presence of
garnet which has been formed at higher temperature than the rocks found at okra hill quarry. The
metamorphic facies is an eclogite facies which formed at higher temperature. The rocks are striking in
116NNW and dips at 043 with a dip direction of NE.

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Fig.4.showing Garnetiferrous/zebra gneiss with A= garnet Porphyroblasts in reddish brown minerals.
B= Fracture and the offset is 1cm C= foliation trend

1.4. TAPRI QUARRY

This locality is part of the kasila group and the rocks are zebra gneiss that was formed through the
metamorphism of gabbro. The rock shows a range of colours from white, green to dark grey and the
minerals observed are quartz, feldspar, pyroxene and amphibole. The rock is medium to high grade
metamorphic rock. Laterite and bauxite were evident at the top of the outcrop while the zebra gneiss
rock is underneath with series of fractures that can lead to rock fall and it is unaltered. The laterites
were formed by the weathering and precipitation of minerals in solution in which the soluble ones are
leached and the insoluble ones remain forming the laterite. The bauxite is formed by the weathering of
aluminous rock in which some have been transported but most being residual accumulates from which
most other constituents of the parent rock other than alumina have been leached. The dark coloured
minerals exhibits a porphyroblastic texture with distinctive shaped of an eye indicating that this
locality is very close to the sheared zone. The mafic – felsic ratio the mineral is probably 2:1(60% -
40%). The coordinate are Eastings-0752559 and Northings-0968078 using the GPS. The rock dips at
an angle of 680 and strikes in N-NW/310

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Fig.5 photos showing Zebra gneiss that exhibits an eye shaped Porphyroblasts and laterite

DAY 2

2.1. Romeni [GF508845]

This locality is part of the Kasila thrust and it is made of fine grained rocks that may have been
formed by the cataclastic process of thrusting, which is simply the adjacent movement of material and
is also a form of dynamic metamorphism. the rocks at this locality are steaky and display no cleavage.
They have fractured textures which have formed by the thrusting [ultramylonite] due to brittle
deformation. It shows white and grey colour and composed mainly of feldspars and quartz which
exhibits a flinty quartzo-feldspathic feature produced probably by extreme shearing of rocks. The
rocks are fine grained. These rocks dip at angle of 64 ⁰ with a dip direction of NW and and strikes at
158 SW. It has a coordinate of Eastings-0750774 and Northings0984598 with an error of +3 using the
GPS.

Fig. 6 Outcrop shows flinty quartzo-feldspathic rocks formed by thrusting.

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2.2. GBINTI [GF 647903]

The rocks show a variety of colours from white, brown, light grey to black. Minerals observed are
feldspars, quartz and biotite. It shows alignment of mafic and felsic minerals called foliation. The
fractures were evident in the outcrop with relative movement. A fault was observed. The fault is a
normal fault because its hanging wall block has moved down relatively to the foot wall block. The
fault is a Dip slip fault because it has an inclined fault plane and along which the relative
displacement or offset has occurred along the dip direction of the rocks. This area has suffered some
amount of extensional stress as shown by the existence of normal fault. The displacement of the fault
is 7.5cm (fig.6b). The outcrop exhibits a number of geologic features such as foliation, faulting,
fractures and quartz vein and their ages relative to the rock are as follow; the rock is older than the
vein while the quartz vein is older to the fault which is the youngest. This rock is granitic gneiss
because of the slight variation it shows. It is a medium grade metamorphic rock. The rocks are
striking at 36 NNE and dips at an angle of 46⁰. The coordinate is Eastings-07645214 and Northings-
0990411.

Fig.7 Granitic gneiss showing A=rock in hand specimen B= fault

2.3. ROKTOLON [GF684946]

This locality is part of Marampa group. On the road side near katik village, The rock samples shows
colours ranging from whitish, light brown to grey and contains minerals such as quartz, feldspar and
biotite. It breaks into sharp angular fragment and it is highly metamorphosed with some amount of
foliation in a disruptive manner. The rock is quartz-mica schist and the precursor materials of this
rock were from metasediments. The rock was formed by the alteration of those sediments by heat,
pressure and chemical activity as this is obvious by the quartzite present. It is a low grade
metamorphic rock.

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Fig.8 photos A= shows quartz mica schist along the road side B= shows an overview of Roktolon hill

2.4 KATIK VILAGE [GF 694950]

The rocks observed show variety of colours such as white, black, pink, greenish and shiny grey and
contains quartz, biotite, chlorite and feldspar. The rock is predominated by mica and quartz minerals
and is intensively metamorphosed and folded with quartz veins. The folded quartz vein showed
repeated folding. Crenulations effect is evident here and two types of crenulations were observed
which are the S1and S2 fold. The stress experienced by this outcrop is differential stress which
affected the rock in a number of tectonic activities producing S1 and S2 folds. The S1 fold was the
first one being affected and then followed by the S2. The S1 is older to S2. The widths of the quartz
veins vary, one being 3cm while the other is 3.5cm and the width is not uniform. The rock is Quartz-
mica schist and it is a low grade metamorphic rock. The parent materials were from sediment
weathered from other outcrops as it was obvious by the quartzite. It shows schistosity texture. The
rocks here and that of roktolon shared the same traits. The rocks strikes at 326 NNW and Dips at an
angle of 68⁰. Has a coordinate of Easting-0769742 and Northing-0994889.

Fig.9 photos showing A= quartz vein B=fold quartz mica schist

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 DAY 3

3.1. ROTOMBO TAUA

The samples of the outcrop at this site shows a range of colours such as brown, white, grey to dark
grey and black and contains plagioclase feldspar, hornblende, amphibole and biotite minerals.
Foliation is clearly visible on the outcrop. The samples are predominated by mafic [amphiboles,
hornblende, feldspar] minerals in which the minerals are aligned. The rock is a coarse grained
amphibolite [hornblende-plagioclase gneiss] with evidenced of strong foliation. There is a direction of
elongated mineral, this is because they have a prismatic (Neddle like) form and lie in horizontal
manner. Using the hand lens viewing the samples collected, there is a short needle like features in
prismatic form which help us to deduce the presence of hornblende. It is a low grade metamorphic
rock and it is metamorphosed igneous rock from basaltic material. The rock present is coarse-grained
amphibolites.
Weathering occurs on the rock which gives the rock a yellowish colour with white bands that shows
the presence of oxide which is the weathering product of feldspars. There is also a low concentration
of garnets occurring as inclusion in the amphibolite at some parts while others parts show no garnets.
The colour of the garnet inclusion is reddish brown and this garnet is further described as Almandine
garnet. The outcrop has a gneissocity texture because of the compositional layering or banding.

The rock strikes at 156 SSE with dip angle of 41⁰ and a dip direction of NNE. The outcrop has a
coordinate of Eastings-0750896 and Northings- 0971994 using the GPS

Fig.10 photo showing coarse grained amphibolite

3.2. SOGBONE BRIDGE

This bridge is characterized by altered mylonite widely spread on either side of the bridge. A running
stream marks the boundary between the Kasila group and Granite Greenstone terrain. Two major rock

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types were observed on both sides of the bridge. The rocks are fine and coarse grains with the mineral
such as quartz, plagioclase (orthoclase), k-feldspar, Biotite and hornblende which are form as a result
of alteration. The rock has more of mafic mineral relative to the felsic minerals. The felsic minerals
here are orthoclase and plagioclase while biotite being the mafic minerals. There is an evidence of
mylonization in which the finer grains surrounding the larger grains. The rocks encountered down the
bridge shows range of colours from dull white, light pink, brown, grey to black and it contains
feldspar, amphiboles and biotite minerals. The rock shows strong foliation of mafic and felsic mineral
components. This rock is a foliated amphibolite and it is medium to high grade metamorphic rock.
The rock strikes at 134 SSE with a dip angle of 56⁰. The rock sample of the outcrop has a coordinate
of Eastings-0755017 and Northings-0972843. Moving across the strike of the outcrop we observed a
decreasing metamorphic grade from Amphibolite to Granite. It shows two obvious fracture cleavages
in which one of these cleavages cross cut the other. From the principle of cross cutting relationship
the cleavage being crossed cut is older to the one that cross cut it. The outcrop is mylonitized granites
and is described as meta-sedimentary rock. On carefully observing this locality we noticed that the
water has served as a boundary separating the Amphibolite and Granites. This outcrop is part of the
granitic high grade terrain.
Lineation also occurs due to the foliation bimding caused by pressure acting on the mineral thereby
aligning then in a specific direction. The rocks shows a multiples of cleavage fracture in which the
rocks can be easily break in a preferred direction. In the fracture cleavage, quartz and feldspar are also
present. This rock occurs at a small area of a particular setting.

Fig.11 photos showing: A = foliated amphibolite and B= River view

3.3. MANGE BRIDGE

The main distinctive feature at this site is the presence of the little scarcise river which is discordant to
the strike of the outcrops. The colours observed on samples collected are white, grey, dark gray,
greenish and reddish brown. The minerals present on the rock samples are quartz, feldspar, garnets,
pyroxene and biotite. The rock exhibits foliations which are discordant to the flow of the river. The

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samples show some amount of garnets. On moving across the strikes of the rock and going upward
parallel to the flow of the river, the garnets content and that of the mafic content increases gradually.
Our first rock chipped was predominated by felsic mineral components and it is medium to coarse
grained. The next rock chipped there was an increased in the garnets content and the grain size with a
mafic-felsic proportion almost being equal. The last rock sample shows an increased in garnet grains.
On moving upward across the strikes, the mafic content becomes dominant with an increased in
Garnets with a coarse grained texture. The rock is Garnetiferrous gneiss. It is a high grade
metamorphic rock as it is evident by the feature the garnets portrayed as inclusion which acts as an
indicator mineral. The rocks are striking at 146 SSE and dips at 62 ⁰ with dip direction of WSW. The
coordinate is at Eastings-0736508 and Northings-0987104 using the GPS.

Fig.12 photos showing Garnetiferrous gneiss

DAY 4

4.1. MILE 109/110 QUARRY

The colour of the rock samples collected are pale white, dull pink, grey to black. It contains minerals
such as quartz, k-feldspar and biotite and the grain sizes are Coarse. The outcrop has distinct geologic
feature such as foliations, quartz veins, basic dykes and fractures. The ages of these features; rock is
the oldest followed by foliations and then the quartz vein is older to the dyke and the fractures are the
youngest in the locality. The granite from Makeni is different from Portloko because of it foliation
and It is syn-kinematic granite. The existence of the dyke and the lineament allow us to infer that the
rock is post Liberian even with an age of ≤2700 ma. Granitic rocks can be classified into Leonean
episode and the Liberian episode with the Leonean episode rocks exhibit an E-W foliation trend and
the Liberian episode rocks an N-W trend. The rocks are heterogeneous with mafic material and some
part of the rock has been metamorphosed. It is a syn- Liberian event because its imprints most of the
Leonean event. The width of the dykes encountered varies the first has 2cm and second have 3cm. the
colour of the dike is black i.e. more of ferromagnesium (figure 1a). The rocks are massive and the
feldspar mineral are tabular. There is also an alteration of minerals as you move along the quarry and

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the mafic mineral increases as we also go along the site (figure 2). We observed an outcrop with two
distinct grain size in which one side exhibit coarse grained and the other being medium grained and
the geology behind its formation is likely to be during crystallization those with coarse grained would
have crystallized first followed by the medium grained.
The rocks exposed here are granitic gneiss which is part of the greenstone terrain associated with the
basement complex. The locality has a coordinate of Eastings-0816972 and Northings-0981983 using
GPS.

Fig.13. Granitic gneiss rocks associated with the basement complex

4.2. MILE 113/112

The colours of the rock samples are grey, black and pink. Minerals observed are microcline feldspar,
quartz and micas. The pink (microcline) minerals are more dominant in the outcrop. The rocks are
pink granite outcrops with a dominating pink colour which infer to the richness in microcline. The
rock is massive with various grain sizes. It has a phaneritic texture. The geologic features observed
were basic xenolith inclusions, joints, quartz vein. The mineral of the dike differ from that of the
country rock, and also some of the dikes run parallel and the other run perpendicular.

The xenolith must have formed by the accumulation of country rocks into the granitic magma as it
rises to a temperature less than that required to melt the xenolith and thus crystallized together with it.
The xenolith is acting as an inclusion and according to the principle of inclusion which States that a
fragment of rock incorporated or included in another is older than the host rock. For e.g., larger
fragments incorporated into magma as it moves upward through the crust are older than the magma
and hence the resulting rock. The xenolith is just a foreign material and these foreign material
(xenolith) are picked up as magma or lava flows and are incorporated and later cool in the matrix.
According to the principle of inclusions, xenoliths are older than the igneous rock which contains

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them. Xenolith is dark in colour and fine grains compare to the country rock that host hosts it. There is
also an intersect of veins within the xenolith which according to the principle of cross cutting which
states that any geologic feature is younger than any feature it cuts The vein oriented at SE/152 with
4cm width and their widths are not uniform. The outcrop has a coordinate of Eastings-0822259 and
Northings-0983567 using the GPS.

Fig.14 photos showing pink granite with A=xenolith inclusion B= quartz veins

4.3. MATELE TO MAKENI

Colours observed on the chipped rock sample are: light pink, dull white to white, brown and grey to
dark grey. It shows to contain feldspar, quartz and micas. The rock is predominated by felsic minerals
exhibiting phaneritic texture. The rock is Migmatite because it contains two conspicuous mineral
contents. The Felsic minerals are principally quartz, muscovite and feldspar and the mafic minerals
being biotite. The locality is apparent of Migmatite and hybridized granite. We observed that the
felsic minerals were more dominant so we infer the name of the rock to be likely leuco granite. The
outcrop has a coordinate of Eastings-0202369 and Northings-0956446 using GPS

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Fig.15 photo showing Migmatite granite in hand specimen

4.4. MASAKA TO 5 MILE

The colours observed in the chipped rock are: black, shiny white, grey and dark gray and contain
Quartz and micas. Viewing the rock under hand lens we observed that it exhibiting a fined grained
texture. We also observed basic nodules in composition and quartz vein. The nodules are probably
rich in biotite minerals. The parent materials from which the rock would have formed were likely to
be sedimentary and reworking of sandstone would have led to the formation of the meta sediments.
The rocks were then metamorphosed after they have been lithified into rock. The rock is a biotite
bearing quartzite in which the biotite minerals are evident. The biotite would have formed after the
injections of magmatic fluid into the rock. The outcrop is at a coordinate of Eastings-0194602 and
Northings-0957404.

Fig.16 photos showing biotite bearing quartzite

DAY 5

5.1. SNAKE QUARRY

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The samples of this outcrop show colours: pink, white, grey to dark grey, and black. The minerals
observed are k-feldspar (microcline), quartz and biotite. The outcrop exhibits a number of geologic
features which are: intrusions [dykes], foliations, joints, veins, nodule [isolated pink minerals] and
fractures. The fractures probably could have occurred due to explosives introduced by Quarry
Mineworkers. The pink coloured [microcline] minerals in the rocks aligned themselves in the form of
a snake. The rock has a coarse to pegmatitic grains and it is Migmatitic granite with a diversified
composition. There was evidenced of biotite granite formed in some part of the outcrop. It is
Migmatitic granite because of its mixed composition of both igneous and metamorphic components
and shows a concentration of felsic minerals in one side and mafic minerals in other side. Moving
upward the quarry the pink coloured minerals decreases gradually. Coordinate are Easting-0172254
Northings-0962787.

Fig.17 Snake Quarry showing: A-Migmatitic granite, B –joint and C-Quartz vein

5.2. MAGBAS VILLAGE

The rocks at this site are sedimentary rocks exposed at the bank of the river. This outcrop is under the
Tabae formation which is one of the divisions recognised in the Rokel River Group. These are the
largest sedimentary deposit. The colours observed are: brownish, grey, black and white and according
to the wentworth Scale, particles size ranging from pebble to clay. The particles are poorly sorted as
particles are of different sizes. There are lot of boulders cemented together which have been formed
during glaciation (when ice was moving within the earth crust, they collected all type of materials or
rocks along it way and dumped then somewhere and these materials becomes compacted and at the
end they compose to form conglomerate which is made up of different material). These material that
are gathered could be inclusion, clast of granite and basic material. Some of the clasts are small and
some are big like cobble. The individual grain particles are angular to sub-rounded in which some are
sub-spherical while the others have a blade like shape and this allow us to infer that they have not
travelled far from their source. It has an open packing and the rock at this site are texturally and

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mineralogically immature as particles are not well rounded, poorly sorted and contains more than one
mineral respectively. The minerals observed were feldspar, quartz biotite, clay, gravel and hematite.
The rocks are part of the rudaceous category. The pebbles are embedded in a fine grained matrix and
cemented. No strike and dip were determined as the rock shows no tilting feature. The outcrop has a
coordinate of Eastings-0829642 and Northings-0960913 using GPS.

Fig.18 Photo of a conglomerate at Magbass

5.3. MILE 128; ROAD CUTTINGT

This locality is between Makeni and Magburaka. The rock chipped here show colours such as pink,
grey and dull white with the pink and grey being dominant in the outcrop. It contain minerals like
feldspar, quartz, and biotite minerals. The rock sample has two distinct grain sizes; the grey side
exhibits a medium grained and the pink side coarse grained. This outcrop could have formed during
the final states of magma chamber crystallization in which the pink side would have crystallized first
allowed the grey side to crystallize later at a temperature near the surface probably. The rock is pink
and grey Granite since these two colours predominated the others. Overburden materials are lateritic
in composition covering some part of the pink granite.

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Fig.19 photo showing pink and grey granite

5.4. MENA HILL TRAVERSE

The outcrop is a dome shape structure. The rocks outcrops show range of colours from white, light
pink, dark brown, grey to black. Minerals observed in the sample collected are: Quartz, feldspar and
biotite. The composition has both mafic and felsic mineral but the felsic minerals are more abundant
than the mafic mineral. The rocks exhibit a phaneritic texture. The locality show evidenced of
geologic formations such as xenoliths and nodules because nodules are sedimentary structure which
tell us that this granite is an S-granite in which the origin is from a sedimentary material. Using a hand
lens viewing through the samples we observed that granites contain inclusions resembling
sedimentary materials likely older to the granite itself. These inclusions are the nodules which
portrayed distinctive circular or angular shape and composed of mafic components. From evidences
gathered this terrain is nodule-bearing granites. The nodules were possibly formed by replacement of
the original mineral matters during crystallization of a granitic magma. No strike and dip were
determined since the rocks show no tilting effects. This locality outcrops has a coordinate of Eastings-
082226 and Northings-0983530 using GPS.

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 Fig
. 20 Mena hill showing Xenoliths and nodules bearing Granite

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