Marble types and economical capacities of the Karaburun peninsula quarries

ABSTRACT This work covers the geological, petrographical, chemical, physicomechanic properties of the marble produced in Karaburun peninsula, production capacities of marble quarries and the areas where the finished product is used. Furthermore, the stratigraphy of Karaburun peninsula and its relation with the marble quarries that are currently being used are analysed and finally the place of the marble quarries in the stratigraphy is defined. In this work, it has been proved that the marble production in Karaburun peninsula is quarried from the limestone that is part of the Camiboğazı and Gerence Formations which date back from the Mesozoik age. The Camiboğazı formation is made up of thick layers, which are most of the time have a masiwe structure. They are white or light gray limestone. On the otherhand, the Gerence formation is made up of mainly corbonated rock, chert and layered limestone, red-green chert and limestone sub layers. If we examine the marble produced in Karaburun Peninsula, we can see that from the limestones in Camiboğazı formation, Ege Vişne, ak Bej, Antik Bej and İzmir Gülü marbles and from the limestones in Gerence formations, Çeşme Bej and Yöntaş Bej marbles are produced. İt has been proved that, Ege Vişne marble is made up of gravel and the marble produced in the other quarries is made up of limestone. Ege Vişne marble is composed of limestone, dolomit gravel and smal amount of quarts and chert. The matrix that binds these gravel is red -brown and made up of clay with FeO and C(X In the composition of the other marbles, large amounts of fossils, spar calsid cement, micrit sub-structures and quarts particles are present.The physico-mechanic tests of the marbles with limestone origins, the CaO ratio is over % 50, the ratio of Si02 is around % 1, and the MgO values are between % 0.5- 1. Only in Ege Vişne marbles, the MgO ratio is over % 10. The reason for this is presence of dolomit gravels in the rock. The ratio of the other chemical compenents is very low. The physico-mechanic tests of the marbles have proved that the uniaxial compressive streight values one over 1000 kg/cm2. The above values show that the marbles that are being produced have high resistance. As to conclude, when we look at the marble samples which have low porosity values, Çeşme Bej, Yöntaş Bej, Ak Bej and Antik Bej are low porosity rocks, whereas İzmir Gülü and Ege Vişne marbles are fully improvious rocks.