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Chaah,Johor
MOHD SHAFEEA LEMAN AND YUSRI ZAKARIAH
INTRODUCTION
-mine pit
. --....
___ ___-
... ------
1- --..km
2
Ma'Okil Formation -.
c=]Lop Formation
O
Gemas Formation
''-""'-- "'
,.
V\V
faun v
ri
I a. Southwest -northeast
section
northeast )
. Y _v_v v _v_v_y
volcanic rock
andesite/
agglomerate/
breccia
v v v , -
v vv ,
to Johor Baharu
to Kuala .lumpur
295
296
Figure 2. Iron Conglomerate bed from Bukit Lop, Chaah (V = volcanic rock ; IC = iron
conglomerate bed; C = conglomerate)
Figure 3. Closed up view of the iron conglomerate showing angular to subrounded pebbles of
hematite in matrix of fine grain hematite.
Wartn Gcologi, Vol. 21, No.5, St!p-Oct1995
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ss: 0.1it41illil
297
CHAAH, JOHOR
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Figure 4. X-ray diffractogram of clast (a) and matrix (b) of the iron conglomerate showing the domination of
hematite with traces of Si02
298
filled shape, some of which has a diameter of downthrown block of a normal fault. The
up to 20 m and thickness of about 2.3 m. Toward sedimentary depositional environment of this
the top, the conglomerate unit is gradually iron conglomerate can be interpreted as a
proximal alluvial fan lobe, and the iron oxides
overlain by pebbly sandstone.
were brought down mainly by gravitational
The conglomerate and the overlying pebbly
force. The absence of goethite or any other
sandstone unit is moderately dipping (40 to
iron hydroxide mineral indicated that water
50) towards the northwest. The general strike
did not play an important role in the deposition
is trending towards northeast-southwest, a trend
of this conglomerate. The paleoslope is directed
very similar to the main trend of the iron
very gently toward the northwest with the iron
mineralization. At the same sector of the mine
source coming from the northeast-southwest
pit, a nearly vertical normal fault can be seen
trending hematite mineralization lode. The
cutting the conglomerate and sandstone units
Ma'Okil basin might have been developed as a
almost at a right angle to the bedding strike.
half graben on the northwestern sector of the
The base of the conglomerate unit on the
iron mineralization zone. This fault plane
northeastern side of the fault has been displaced
appeared to be coincide with mineralization
about 8 m downward (Fig. 1a). The fault only
lineament mentioned by Burton (1965) as the
cuts the lower part of the conglomerate unit
?Ma'Okil wrench fault. Bean (1968), suggested
and the underlying volcanic rock. Perhaps, it
that the Bukit Lop and Sri Medan iron
is a series of similar trending faults which
mineralizations are related to this ?Ma'Okil
later influence the present day lineament of
wrench fault.
Stratigraphically, the
the Bukit Lop ridge and other ridges within
conglomerate unit conformably overlies the
the Ma'Okil Forest Reserve. The Bukit Lop
massive andesitic volcanic rock and it is overlain
ridge and other ridges within the Ma'Okil Forest
by thick pebbly sandstone. The conglomerate
Reserve is trending toward northwest-southeast.
and the pebbly sandstone units at this locality
have been faulted probably by a series of similar
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
trending faults which influence the development
present day lineation of the Bukit Lop ridge
of
The presence of conglomerate at this
locality have been mention by Bean (1968) and and other ridges in this area.
Zakaria Hussain (1987). Zakaria Hussain (1987)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
considered that this continental deposit belong
to the Paloh Formation. However, the present
The author would like to thank Dr. Kamal
study shows that this continental unit represents
Roslan
Mohamed for allowing the use of his
the southernmost extension of the Ma'Okil
4-07-03-033 grant to fund this
IRPA
project
Formation described by Loganathan ( 1978) from
research
and
the
staff of the Geology Department
the Ma'Okil are:1. The iron rich conglomerate
UKM for their help during various stages of
at the basal conglomerate unit of the Ma'Okil
preparation of this paper.
Formation is perhaps only a local phenomenon.
This conglomerate might be equivalent with
REFERENCES
many other Upper Mesozoic continental
conglomerates found in other parts of Peninsular BEAN, J.H., 1968. Iron-ore deposits of West Malaysia.
Malaysia such as the Paloh Formation (Zakaria
Geol. Surv. Malaysia Econ. Bull., 2, 194p.
Hussain, 1987), Murau Conglomerate
BuRTON, C.K., 1965. Wrench faulting in Malaya.
(Suntharalingam, 1973), Lanis Conglomerate
Journal of Geology, 73(5), 781-798.
(Khoo, 1973), Badong Conglomerate (Rishworth,
BuRTON, C.K., 1973. Mesozoic. In: Gobbett, D.J. and
1974) and many others.
The iron conglomerate which is essentially
made of in situ, angular to subrounded pebbles
and cobbles of iron ore (mostly hematite) might
represent an alluvial fan deposit formed on the
CHONG,
F.S.,
COOK,
SuNTHARALINGAM,
299
KooPMANs,
KooPMANS,