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
As a typical illustration of the minute structure of the felsitic
tuffs, I may refer to the rock No. V. of the foregoing analyses. It is
composed mainly of fragments of various felsites, many of which show
good flow-structure. Large, and usually broken, crystals of orthoclase
are dispersed among the other ingredients. Here and there a fragment
of diabase may be detected; but I could find no trace of pieces of the
peculiar microcrystalline spherulitic quartz-porphyries of St. David's.
There is but little that could be called matrix cementing the lapilli
together. The presence of fragments of diabase may possibly reduce the
proportion of silica and increase that of magnesia, as compared with
what would otherwise have been present in the rock.
Some of the tuffs appear to have been a kind of volcanic mud. A
specimen of this nature collected from the road-side section, north of
the Board School, presents a finely-granular paste enclosing abundant
angular and subangular lapilli of diabase, a smaller proportion
of felsite (sometimes displaying perfect flow-structure), broken
plagioclase crystals, and a greenish micaceous mineral which has been
subsequently developed out of the matrix between the lapilli.
Though they lie in the sedimentary series above the main volcanic
group, I may refer here to certain thin bands of tuff at Castell, on
account of their interest in relation to the true Cambrian age of the
volcanic group. They are not quite so fresh as the tuff that occurs in
thicker masses, but their volcanic origin is readily observable. One
band appears to be made up of the debris of some basic rock, like the
diabase of the district, through which detached plagioclase crystals
are scattered. The lapilli are subangular; and around their border a
granular deposit of hæmatite has taken place, giving a red colour to
the rock. Another band presents small angular lapilli, almost entirely
composed of a substance which to the naked eye, or with a lens, is
dull, white and clay-like, easily scratched, and slightly unctuous to
the touch. Under the microscope, with a low power, it becomes pale
greyish-green and transparent, and is seen to consist in large part of
altered felspar crystals, partially kaolinized and partially changed
into white mica and calcite. These scattered crystals are true volcanic
lapilli, and have not been derived from the mechanical waste of any
pre-existing volcanic rock. In the tuffs interstratified with the
conglomerate, at the quarry above Porth-clais, though much decomposed,
crystals of plagioclase can likewise still be traced. These strata are
also true tuffs, and not mere detritus due to mechanical degradation
(see Fig. 41).
The general result of the study of the microscopic structure of the
Cambrian tuffs of St. David's may be briefly summed up as follows:--
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