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Talc Carbonate
Talc carbonates are a suite of rock and mineral compositions found in metamorphosed ultramafic rocks. The term refers to the two most common end-member minerals found within ultramafic rocks which have undergone talc-carbonation or carbonation reactions: talc and the carbonate mineral magnesite. Talc carbonate mineral assemblages are controlled by temperature and pressure of metamorphism and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide within metamorphic fluids, as well as by the composition of the host rock. Compositional controls In a general sense, talc carbonate metamorphic assemblages are diagnostic of the magnesium content of the ultramafic protolith. * Lower-magnesian ultramafic rocks (12-18% MgO as a rule of thumb) tend to favor talc-chlorite assemblages * Medium-MgO rocks (15-25% MgO) tend to produce talc-amphibole assemblages. * High-MgO rocks with in excess of 25% MgO tend to form true talc-magnesite metamorphic assemblages. Thus, the MgO content of a metamorphosed ultram ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metamorphism
Metamorphism is the transformation of existing rock (the protolith) to rock with a different mineral composition or texture. Metamorphism takes place at temperatures in excess of , and often also at elevated pressure or in the presence of chemically active fluids, but the rock remains mostly solid during the transformation. Metamorphism is distinct from weathering or diagenesis, which are changes that take place at or just beneath Earth's surface. Various forms of metamorphism exist, including regional, contact, hydrothermal, shock, and dynamic metamorphism. These differ in the characteristic temperatures, pressures, and rate at which they take place and in the extent to which reactive fluids are involved. Metamorphism occurring at increasing pressure and temperature conditions is known as ''prograde metamorphism'', while decreasing temperature and pressure characterize ''retrograde metamorphism''. Metamorphic petrology is the study of metamorphism. Metamorphic petrologists re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolomite (mineral)
Dolomite () is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally The term is also used for a sedimentary carbonate rock composed mostly of the mineral dolomite. An alternative name sometimes used for the dolomitic rock type is dolostone. History As stated by Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure the mineral dolomite was probably first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1768. In 1791, it was described as a rock by the French naturalist and geologist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu (1750–1801), first in buildings of the old city of Rome, and later as samples collected in the mountains now known as the Dolomite Alps of northern Italy. Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure first named the mineral (after Dolomieu) in March 1792. Properties The mineral dolomite crystallizes in the trigonal-rhombohedral system. It forms white, tan, gray, or pink crystals. Dolomite is a double carbonate, having an alternating structural arrangement of calcium and magnesium ions. Unless it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komatiite
Komatiite () is a type of ultramafic mantle-derived volcanic rock defined as having crystallised from a lava of at least 18 wt% MgO. Komatiites have low silicon, potassium and aluminium, and high to extremely high magnesium content. Komatiite was named for its type locality along the Komati River in South Africa, and frequently displays spinifex texture composed of large dendritic plates of olivine and pyroxene. Komatiites are rare rocks; almost all komatiites were formed during the Archaean Eon (4.0–2.5 billion years ago), with few younger (Proterozoic or Phanerozoic) examples known. This restriction in age is thought to be due to cooling of the mantle, which may have been hotter during the Archaean. The early Earth had much higher heat production, due to the residual heat from planetary accretion, as well as the greater abundance of radioactive isotopes, particularly shorter lived ones like uranium 235 which produce more decay heat. Lower temperature mantle melts such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenschist
Greenschists are metamorphic rocks that formed under the lowest temperatures and pressures usually produced by regional metamorphism, typically and 2–10 kilobars (). Greenschists commonly have an abundance of green minerals such as chlorite, serpentine, and epidote, and platy minerals such as muscovite and platy serpentine. The platiness gives the rock schistosity (a tendency to split into layers.) Other common minerals include quartz, orthoclase, talc, carbonate minerals and amphibole (actinolite). Greenschist is a general field petrologic term for metamorphic or altered mafic volcanic rock. In Europe, the term ''prasinite'' is sometimes used. A ''greenstone'' is sometimes a greenschist but can also be rock types without any schistosity, especially metabasalt (spilite). However, basalts may remain quite black if primary pyroxene does not revert to chlorite or actinolite. To qualify for the name a rock must also exhibit schistosity or some foliation or layering. The rock i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Granulite
Granulites are a class of high-grade metamorphic rocks of the granulite facies that have experienced high-temperature and moderate-pressure metamorphism. They are medium to coarse–grained and mainly composed of feldspars sometimes associated with quartz and anhydrous ferromagnesian minerals, with granoblastic texture and gneissose to massive structure.D.R. Bowes (1989), ''The Encyclopedia of Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology''; Van Nostrand Reinhold They are of particular interest to geologists because many granulites represent samples of the deep continental crust. Some granulites experienced decompression from deep in the Earth to shallower crustal levels at high temperature; others cooled while remaining at depth in the Earth. The minerals present in a granulite will vary depending on the parent rock of the granulite and the temperature and pressure conditions experienced during metamorphism. A common type of granulite found in high-grade metamorphic rocks of the continent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphibolite
Amphibolite () is a metamorphic rock that contains amphibole, especially hornblende and actinolite, as well as plagioclase feldspar, but with little or no quartz. It is typically dark-colored and dense, with a weakly foliated or schistose (flaky) structure. The small flakes of black and white in the rock often give it a salt-and-pepper appearance. Amphibolite frequently forms by metamorphism of mafic igneous rocks, such as basalt. However, because metamorphism creates minerals entirely based upon the chemistry of the protolith, certain 'dirty marls' and volcanic sediments may also metamorphose to an amphibolite assemblage. Deposits containing dolomite and siderite also readily yield amphibolite (tremolite-schist, grunerite-schist, and others) especially where there has been a certain amount of contact metamorphism by adjacent granitic masses. Metamorphosed basalt (metabasalt) creates ''ortho-amphibolite'' and other chemically appropriate lithologies create ''para-amphibolite''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skarn
Skarns or tactites are hard, coarse-grained metamorphic rocks that form by a process called metasomatism. Skarns tend to be rich in calcium-magnesium-iron-manganese-aluminium silicate minerals, which are also referred to as calc-silicate minerals.Ray, G.E., and Webster, I.C.L. (1991): An Overview of Skarn Deposits; in Ore Deposits, Tectonics and Metallogeny in the Canadian Cordillera; McMillan, W.J., compiler, B. C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, Paper 1991-4, pages 213-252.Meinert, L.D., 1992. Skarns and Skarn Deposits; Geoscience Canada, Vol. 19, No. 4, p. 145-162.Hammarstrom, J.M., Kotlyar, B.B., Theodore, T.G., Elliott, J.E., John, D.A., Doebrich, J.L., Nash, J.T., Carlson, R.R., Lee, G.K., Livo, K.E., Klein, D.P., 1995. Cu, Au, and Zn-Pb Skarn Deposits, Chapter 12; United States Geological Survey: Preliminary Compilation of Descriptive Geoenvironmental Mineral Deposit Models: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1995/ofr-95-0831/CHAP12.pdf. These minerals form as a res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbonatite
Carbonatite () is a type of intrusive rock, intrusive or extrusive rock, extrusive igneous rock defined by mineralogic composition consisting of greater than 50% carbonate minerals. Carbonatites may be confused with marble and may require geochemical verification. Carbonatites usually occur as small volcanic plug, plugs within zoned alkalic intrusive complexes, or as dike (geology), dikes, sill (geology), sills, breccias, and vein (geology), veins. They are almost exclusively associated with continental rift-related tectonic settings. It seems that there has been a steady increase in the carbonatitic igneous activity through the Earth's history, from the Archean Eon (geology), eon to the present. Nearly all carbonatite occurrences are intrusives or subvolcanic rock, subvolcanic intrusives. This is because carbonatite lava flows, being composed largely of soluble carbonates, are easily weathered and are therefore unlikely to be preserved in the geologic record. Carbonatite erupti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metasomatism
Metasomatism (from the Greek μετά ''metá'' "change" and σῶμα ''sôma'' "body") is the chemical alteration of a rock by hydrothermal and other fluids. It is the replacement of one rock by another of different mineralogical and chemical composition. The minerals which compose the rocks are dissolved and new mineral formations are deposited in their place. Dissolution and deposition occur simultaneously and the rock remains solid. Synonyms to the word metasomatism are metasomatose and metasomatic process. The word metasomatose can also be used as a name for specific varieties of metasomatism (for example '' Mg-metasomatose'' and '' Na-metasomatose''). Metasomatism can occur via the action of hydrothermal fluids from an igneous or metamorphic source. In the igneous environment, metasomatism creates skarns, greisen, and may affect hornfels in the contact metamorphic aureole adjacent to an intrusive rock mass. In the metamorphic environment, metasomatism is created by mass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fenite
Fenite is a metasomatic alteration associated particularly with carbonatite intrusions and created, very rarely, by advanced carbon dioxide alteration (carbonation) of felsic and mafic rocks. It is characterised by the presence of alkali feldspar, sodic pyroxene and sodic amphibole. Fenite alteration is known, but restricted in distribution, around high-temperature metamorphic talc carbonates, generally in the form of an aureole around ultramafic rocks. Such examples include biotite-rich zones, amphibolite-calcite-scapolite alteration and other unusual skarn assemblages. The process is called fenitization. The type locality for fenite is the Fen Complex (Norwegian: Fensfeltet) in Nome, Telemark, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t .... References External li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Widgiemooltha Komatiite
The Widgiemooltha Komatiite is a formation of komatiite in the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. Stratigraphy The stratigraphy of the Widgiemooltha Komatiite is well known to be part of the regional komatiite magmatic event also seen at the Kambalda Dome, to the north. There are comparisons which place the Widgiemooltha Komatiite as equivalent to the Silver Lake Komatiite. The Mt Edwards Basalt is correlated regionally with the Devon Consuls Basalt of Kambalda, and the Widgeimooltha Chert correlated with the Paringa Slate. The structure of the Widgiemooltha Dome has three thrusted repetitions of the basal komatiite contact and komatiite sequence including footwall Mt Edwards Basalt and hangingwall sediments (Widgiemooltha Chert). Widgiemooltha Dome The Widgiemooltha Komatiite is exposed around the margins of a large, granite dome. The Widgiemooltha Granite is a coarse to medium, holocrystalline equigranular granite with subordinate biotite and ferromagnesian minerals. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
