OUMNH Number: | 567 |
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Name and quarry location: | Serpentina verde ranocchia, from Wadi Umm Esh, Wadi Atalla region, Eastern Desert, Egypt; or a variety of verde di Polcevera, from Pietra Lavazzara, Genoa, Liguria, Italy |
Geological description: | Strongly sheared and serpentinised ultramafic rock with abundant granular patches and veinlets of black oxide minerals within the serpentine. Later veinlets of yellow serpentine cut the rock in sub-linear arrays. |
Comments: | This is not the verde ranocchia of modern writers. It may be an atypical serpentinite from the Precambrian basement rocks near Wadi Umm Esh in the Wadi Atalla region, Eastern Desert, Egypt. Alternatively it may be from the Genoa region, Liguria, Italy and indeed it resembles a variety of marmo verde di Polcevera quarried at Pietralavezzara in the Val Polcevera which was seen in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Jervis (1889) says this locality was formerly called Larvego. |
References: | Borghini (1997) 291; Corsi (1845) 157-159; Jervis (1862) 26-28; Jervis (1889) 253-254; Harrell (2010a); Price (2007) 177 |
Further information: |
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Corsi's classification: | Class 7. Serpentines; i. Noble serpentines |
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Corsi's text: | 143.3 Verde ranocchia. Marmor ophite. Ofite... Plinio l'assegnò all' Egitto, ma Lucano con maggior precisione dice che si trovata nel Territorio di Tebe. |