Myrmekite
Sign in to savethumb|right|Myrmekite, about 2 millimetres across Myrmekite is a vermicular, or wormy, intergrowth of quartz in plagioclase. The intergrowths are microscopic in scale, typically with maximum dimensions less than 1 millimeter. The plagioclase is sodium-rich, usually albite or oligoclase. These quartz-plagioclase intergrowths are associated with and commonly in contact with potassium feldspar. Myrmekite is formed under metasomatic conditions, usually in conjunction with tectonic deformations. It has to be clearly separated from micrographic and granophyric intergrowths, which are magmatic.
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15 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Myrmekite formed during K-metasomatism
- Rim myrmekite
- Wartlike myrmekite
- Ghost myrmekite
- Myrmekite formed during Ca-metasomatism
- Ca-metasomatism of deformed K-feldspar in magmatic rocks
- Ca-metasomatism of deformed K-feldspar in charnockites
- Ca-metasomatism of deformed plagioclase in anorthosites
- Myrmekite formed during Na-Ca-metasomatism
- Myrmekite formed during progressive deformation
- Occurrence
- Formation
- See also
- References
thumb|right|Myrmekite, about 2 millimetres across Myrmekite is a vermicular, or wormy, intergrowth of quartz in plagioclase. The intergrowths are microscopic in scale, typically with maximum dimensions less than 1 millimeter. The plagioclase is sodium-rich, usually albite or oligoclase. These quartz-plagioclase intergrowths are associated with and commonly in contact with potassium feldspar. Myrmekite is formed under metasomatic conditions, usually in conjunction with tectonic deformations. It has to be clearly separated from micrographic and granophyric intergrowths, which are magmatic.
== Etymology == The word myrmekite is derived from the Ancient Greek μὑρμηχἰα (wart) or μὑρμηξ (ant) and was used by Jakob Sederholm in 1899 for the first time to describe these structures.