Limestone when metamorphosed is changed to a crystalline marble,
frequently white in colour owing to the dissipation of its previously
contained organic matter. The white marbles so extensively utilized in
Georgia, Vermont, etc., are of this nature. Other similar metamorphosed
layers occur in several of the ranges of the Pacific mountains from
Mexico to Alaska.
The influence of metamorphism on deposits of coal when the heat has been
of moderate intensity serves to drive off a large part of the volatile
matter present and converts the coal into a substance resembling coke,
as has happened adjacent to dikes or intruded sheets of igneous rock in
the Richmond coal-field, Virginia, in New Mexico, Washington, etc. When
the heat is somewhat more intense, the coal is changed to what is termed
graphitic anthracite, as in the Rhode Island coal-fields, and when still
greater or long-continued, results in the production of graphite,
as in the Algonkian rocks about the Adirondack hills and over a wide
region in eastern Canada.
An important result of metamorphism is the production of new minerals in
the rocks acted on. Many of the metamorphic terranes consist essentially
of quartz, feldspar, and mica, which have been formed by the
rearrangement of the mineral matter contained in the rocks during their
previous state. Besides these constituent minerals there are frequently
others present, such as the garnets, tourmaline, emerald, sapphire,
corundum, etc., which are of economic importance. In a large number of
instances the minerals of metamorphic rocks are contained in veins of
one class or another, in part resulting from segregation in the rocks
themselves while yet in a heated condition, and in part deposited in
fissures or other openings as a result of secondary concentration
through the action of heated waters. The principal difference between
the minerals concentrated in the metamorphic rocks and those deposited
in cavities in unaltered sedimentary beds seems to be that in the former
instance the percolating water which carried the material in solution
had a higher temperature than in the latter case.
Among the numerous mineral substances of value in the arts, occurring in
the metamorphic terranes of North America, other than building stones
and the previously concentrated deposits, such as iron ore, graphite,
etc., mention can only be made at present of the following:
Mica, which is used in thin sheets for the windows of stoves and
furnaces, and when ground and mingled with other substances furnishes a
good insulating material for electric wires, fireproofing, and also used
as a lubricant, etc., occurs in large quantities in the metamorphic
rocks of New Hampshire and Ottawa, and less abundantly in North
Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, etc. It is widely distributed,
but to find transparent colourless sheets of large size is difficult.
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