Our scholarship holder Johanna is approaching the end of her studies. Read here her August report:

As you know by now that I am a final year student, in the final year of study one has to write a thesis before graduating as an honor’s degree graduate. I am thus sharing with you the abstract of my thesis paper entitled: The geology, geochemistry and petrography of the Keishohe carbonatite,southwest Namibia. It can be used by fellow students as an example on writing an abstract of a paper as an abstract is of utmost importance a summary of a statement which concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general, or of several things.

Abstract

This paper is a synthesis of the three aspects of the Keishohe carbonatites namely; the geology, the geochemistry and the petrography. The Keishohe carbonatite occurs to the South west of Namibia and has a potential for Rare Earth Elements (REEs). The prospect is proximal to the Dicker Willem carbonatite complexe which is dated approximately 49Ma. The Keishohe area consists of thin plugs of carbonatite dykes which have intruded the underlying Namaqua Metamorphic complexe of gneisses and quartzites. The country rocks strike southwest wards which is the same orientation of the flow banding in the carbonatites. The flow banding is parallel to the foliation in the country rocks and it is evidence that the carbonatites were emplaced in zones of weakness. Four generations of carbonatites are preserved at Keishohe, they possess different colours,texture and geochemistry. The composition of the carbonatites is generally ferro-carbonatites. The brecciated quartzites show that the area has undergone many deformation episodes which are evidence of tectonic events having affected the area. Some carbonatites in Keishohe show an economic potential for Rare Earth Elements and the presence of the mineral fuchsite in the rocks show that fenitization has occurred in the area. These carbonatites have been emplaced in an extensional environment that is commonly associated with these rocks.