"Hatrurim Formation" is often used as a locality name, but it is really a geological unit, outcropping at many localities, spread over three countries.
The Hatrurim Formation is largely composed of an unusual rock type, a type of natural portland cement formed by high-temperature alteration of late Cretaceous to lower Eocene bituminous chalk, marl and impure limestone. Several of the type locality mineral species here had previously been intensively studied as anthropogenic phases in portland cement. Unlike calc-silicate rocks in other parts of the world, which were normally created by contact metamorphism (heating by an igneous intrusion), the Hatrurim Formation is underlain by unaltered sedimentary rocks with no igneous intrusion. The origin of the heat which metamorphosed these rocks was long a mystery, but is now thought to be due to oxidation of bituminous compounds (in simple english, it "burned"). Intensity of metamorphism correlates to access to oxygen. Hydrocarbons are widespread in surrounding rocks but are absent in the metamorphosed beds (the "Mottled Zone", an old name for the Hatrurim Formation). The late Gary Weinberger, who first found bentorite and sent it to a mineralogist for characterization, said that his discovery was made a short hike from the road "near" Arad.
The Hatrurim Formation was named for the locality Hatrurim, its largest area of exposure, but it also outcrops in several other parts of Israel and Palestine and Jordan too, so not all of the listed minerals may really be from Hatrurim, and many samples loosely labeled "Hatrurim" ought really to have been labelled "Hatrurim Formation" from other localities. See under: Har Ye'elim, Hatrurim, Kefar Uriyya, Malhata, and Nahal Ayalon in Israel; and Beit Sahur, Jebel Harmun, Ma'ale Adumim, Nabi Musa, and Tarqumiya in Palestine; and Daba Siwaqa, Seweilih and Maqarin in Jordan.
Mineral List
155 entries listed. 134 valid minerals. 5 type localities (valid minerals). 1 type locality (other).
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References
- Gross, S. (1977): The Mineralogy of the Hatrurim Formation, Israel. Geological Survey of Israel, Bulletin no. 70, 80 pp.
- Burg, A., Starinsky, A., Bartov, Y. & Kolodny, Y. (1991): Geology of the Hatrurim Formation (`Mottled Zone') in the Hatrurim Basin. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences, 40, 107-124.
- Gur, D. et al. (1995): 40Ar/39Ar dating of combustion metamorphism ("Mottled Zone", Israel). Chem. Geol. 122, 71-184.
- Burg, A., Kolodny, Y. & Lyakhovsky, V. (1999): Hatrurim-2000: The "Mottled Zone" revisited, forty years later. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 48, 209-223.
- Vapnik, Y., Sokol, E., Murashko, M., Sharygin, V. (2006): The enigma of Hatrurim. Mineralogical Almanac, 10, 69-77.
- Sharygin, V.V., Sokol, E.V. & Vapnik, Ye. (2008): Minerals of the pseudobinary perovskite-brownmillerite series from combustion metamorphic larnite rocks of the Hatrurim Formation (Israel). Russian Geology and Geophysics 49, 709-726.
- Sokol, E. V.; Novikov, I. S.; Zateeva, S. N.; Sharygin, V. V.; Vapnik, Ye. (2008): Pyrometamorphic rocks of the spurrite-merwinite facies as indicators of hydrocarbon discharge zones (the Hatrurim formation, Israel). Doklady Earth Sciences 420, 608-614.
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