The Norbeck Intrusive Suite is an Ordovician granitic

pluton In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

in Montgomery County, Maryland. The

intrusive suite An intrusive suite is a group of plutons related in time and space.Glazner, Allen F, Stock, Greg M. (2010). ''Geology Underfoot in Yosemite''. Mountain Press, p. 45. . All rocks in an intrusive suite result from the same magma-producing event.The ...

was originally mapped as the Norbeck Quartz Diorite by Hopson, and is shown as such on the Geologic Map of Maryland of 1968. A. A. Drake later revised the name after more detailed mapping.Drake, A.A., Jr., 1998, Geologic map of the Kensington quadrangle, Montgomery County, Maryland: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map, GQ-1774, scale 1:24,000 It intrudes through the Wissahickon Formation.

Description

Three lithologies were mapped in the Kensington quadrangle by Drake: * medium- to coarse-grained, fairly massive to foliated

biotite Biotite is a common group of phyllosilicate minerals within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula . It is primarily a solid-solution series between the iron-endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more alumino ...

- hornblende tonalite that contains

xenolith A xenolith ("foreign rock") is a rock fragment (country rock) that becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and solidification. In geology, the term ''xenolith'' is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igne ...

s and/or

autolith A xenolith ("foreign rock") is a rock (geology), rock fragment (Country rock (geology), country rock) that becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and solidification. In geology, the term ''xenolith'' is almost exclusiv ...

s of more mafic rock * medium-grained,

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

augite Augite is a common rock-forming pyroxene mineral with formula . The crystals are monoclinic and prismatic. Augite has two prominent cleavages, meeting at angles near 90 degrees. Characteristics Augite is a solid solution in the pyroxene group. ...

- hornblende meta

gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is che ...

that forms small bodies within the tonalite * dark-green, well- foliated

ultramafic Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are composed ...

rocks of

serpentine Serpentine may refer to: Shapes * Serpentine shape, a shape resembling a serpent * Serpentine curve, a mathematical curve * Serpentine, a type of riding figure Science and nature * Serpentine subgroup, a group of minerals * Serpentinite, a ...

and lesser soapstone

References

{{Reflist Montgomery County, Maryland Igneous petrology of Maryland Ordovician magmatism