The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)Geikie, Archibald
History
The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)
Geikie, Archibald
Volcanoes -- Great Britain
V. Grey granular felsitic tuff, Bridge over Allan River north from St.
David's Board Schools. Analysis by Mr. Wilson.
VI. Pale pinkish-white, finely schistose tuff--a characteristic sample
of the "Porth-lisky schists." Analysis by Prof. Renard.
Many varieties of texture can be traced among the tuffs, from coarse
breccias or agglomerates, with blocks a yard or more in length,
to fine schistose mudstones or sericitic schists. One of the most
remarkable of the finer kinds, found near Pen-y-foel, is externally
dirty-green, compact and tolerably homogeneous, but with distinct
evidence of its clastic character. Under the microscope it is
found to be composed mainly of lapilli of a peculiar rock, which
is characterized by the abundance and freshness of its plagioclase
(an unusual feature in the volcanic group of St. David's); by the
large, well-defined crystals (one of which measured 0·022 inch
by 0·0125 inch) of augite; by large crystals replaced by green
decomposition-products, but having the external form of olivine; by
the absence or scantiness of any base or groundmass; and, in many of
the lapilli, by the abundance of spherical cells, either empty or
filled up as amygdales with decomposition-products. These spherical
vapour-vesicles, so characteristic of the basic or palagonitic lapilli
in many Palæozoic volcanic vents, were found in one fragment, where
they were particularly abundant, to range from a minimum of 0·0008 inch
to a maximum of 0·0033 inch, with a mean of about 0·0018. The rock
from which these lapilli have been derived comes nearest to one of the
diabases from the same part of the district (which will afterwards be
referred to), but shows a closer approach to basalt rocks.
Another interesting tuff is that of which the analysis (No. II.)
has been given. It occurs not far from the horizon of the rock just
described. Under a low power, it is seen to be composed mainly of
fragments of diabase like the rocks of Rhosson and Clegyr Foig. These
fragments are subangular, or irregular in shape, and vary considerably
in size. They are sometimes finely cellular--the cavities, as in the
case just referred to, being spherical. The plagioclase crystals
in the diabase-lapilli are everywhere conspicuous; so also is the
augite, which occurs in larger forms than in the rock of Rhosson or
Clegyr Foig. Next in abundance to these basic fragments are rounded
or subangular pieces of felsite. These weather out in conspicuous
grey rough projections on the exposed face of the rock; under the
microscope they are seen to consist of fine granular felsite, which
shows a groundmass remaining dark between crossed nicols, but with
luminous points and filaments, and an occasional spherulite giving
the usual cross in polarized light. Lapilli of an older tuff may here
and there be detected. A few angular and subangular grains of quartz
are scattered through the rock. The lapilli are bound together by a
finely-granular dirty-green substance.
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