Handbook of Birmingham: Prepared for the Members of the British Association, 1886British Association for the Advancement of Science
History
Handbook of Birmingham: Prepared for the Members of the British Association, 1886
British Association for the Advancement of Science
Birmingham (England); Natural history -- England -- Birmingham
MOUNT SORREL GRANITE.--The granite is of two varieties, red and
grey, the difference being due to the fact, that in the red masses,
the partially decomposed felspar has been coloured by ferric oxide.
The rock is a hornblendic granite, the constituents being quartz,
felspar, biotite, hornblende and titanite, with magnetite and a little
apatite. The felspars are orthoclase and plagioclase; the former is
much decomposed, while the plagioclase frequently remains clear, and
exhibits well its twin striation. Biotite was originally abundant,
but is very frequently replaced by a clear green substance, which
is strongly dichroic, the two colours being grass-green, and clear
yellow. The hornblende has been greatly decomposed; clear crystals
are, however, not uncommon, and exhibit the usual optical characters
of the mineral. The products of alteration are chlorite and epidote.
The titanite appears in reddish-brown grains, but is not very abundant.
In 1879, the writer discovered the junction of the granite with the
sedimentary rocks, and proved that the former was intrusive (Geol.
Mag. dec. ii., Vol. vi., p. 181). The junction occurs in Brazil
Wood, where there is a small quarry, in which granite veins may be
seen to penetrate the strata in various directions; a large mass of
granite is also within a few yards. Some of the phenomena of _contact
metamorphism_ may here be readily studied, the granite having converted
the slate into a crystalline micaceous schist, quite similar in
character to those produced under like conditions round the granite in
Cornwall and elsewhere. Small garnets occur in the altered slates, and
also in the granite close to the junction.
THE CHARNWOOD SYENITES.--The Syenites and other igneous rocks of
Charnwood, have been described by Messrs. Hill and Bonney (Quar. Jour.
Geol. Soc. Vol. xxxiv., p. 199.) The original constituents are felspar,
hornblende, quartz, apatite, ilmenite, magnetite and titanite. The
felspar is of two kinds, orthoclase and plagioclase, the former is very
turbid and decomposed, while the plagioclase is clear, and retains its
usual optical characters. The curious intercrystallization of quartz
and felspar, known as _micropegmatite_, is common in the masses of
syenite near Groby; the best examples, however, have been found by the
writer in the Markfield rock, where it appears to form a ground-mass in
which the larger crystals of orthoclase and plagioclase are enclosed.
A small portion of the hornblende is still characteristic, but the
greater portion appears in various stages of decomposition; the
alteration products being chlorite and epidote. Titanite is by no means
rare, and occurs in well formed twin crystals.
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