Israel/Central Coastal Plain
Roman
Roman mansio
Matrix: Clayey; Sedimentary Carbonates; Angular opaque minerals at the fine fraction (2% - sizing up to 100μm), subrounded at the coarser grain sizes. Quartz silt (1%) with few amount of plagioclase. Dense carbonate crystals (15% sizing 10μm - occasionally 20μm or 30μm); Calcareous clay.
Soil Type: rendzina
Inclusions: exhibiting coastal bioclasts (beach sand) and limestone, some silty and quartz. Rounded fragments of fossiliferous coastal limestone (Beach rock), separate fossils (<650μm) are frequent to dominant. Calcareous corallinean algae Amphiroa genus fossils, with some mollusc shell fragments. Replacement chert (smoky to brown-stained, up to 1.3mm). Frequent local intergrowth of chalcedony.
Birefringence: Zones of preferred optical orientation, birefringent
Frequence: about 3% to 5% Few foraminifers, Very rare silt (<1%), Iron oxide stain.
Inclusions: LIM, CHERP. CHA, QTZ, QIT, MF, CAL, FDP, FOX, CP
Roundness and Angularity: Subrounded to subangular fragments of micritic limestone (<1mm). Isolated polycrystalline fragments of
polycrystalline quartz with common liquid and mineral inclusions. Fine subangular to subrounded quartz sand grains (150-180μm). Very rare rounded calcareous rock fragments, fine micritic calcite and microfossils (<100μm).
Spacing: Doublespaced
Orientation: Vertical
Alignment: Moderate
Texture: Very Poorly Sorted
Grain size distribution: Weakly bimodal
Extinction: Undulose
Crystal form: subhedral to euhedral
Boundaries of inclusions: Sharp to Merging
Optical Density: Low
Concordance: Concordant
Firing: <700
