The three essential felsic species occur in two sizes. The larger plaioclases are euhedral and zoned and are pheocrysts, in places glomeroporphritic. A few large subhedral kaolinized orthoclase grains are present as are large quartz anhedra. These are set in a poorly defined groundmass of variable grained quartz, orthoclase, plagioclase, biotite, and hornblende. Of these the mafics are subhedral, the plagioclase is euhedral, and the others anhedral. Hornblende, more strongly altered than biotite, is variably colored in pale green, bluish green and buff. It is replaced by chlorite and epidote. Accessories are magnetite, apatite, sphene and zircon.
Moderately aligned hornblende prisms dominate this rock and give it its green color. Interspersed among the hornblende is a granular matrix of quartz and k-feldspar. Biotite and epidote appear periodically. The layering in this thin section is controlled by variation in grain size of the hornblende minerals.
The minerals in this sample all appear to intergrow with one another. Most grain boundaries are lobate, especially between feldspar phases and flame lamellae and perthitic intergrowths abound. Although a few hornblende crystals are euhdral in shape, the majority are found as rims around possible clinopyroxene or olivine grains and they tend to group with the other mafic phases. Euhedral apatite appear throughout.
The feldspars in this granite are altering to clays and thus have a consistantly cloudy appearance. The indented grain boundaries in this sample indicate the mutual interference of all phases during growth. The anhedral shape of muscovite grains indicates it grew in the interstices between grains.
A continuous foliation defined by aligned euhedral biotite characterizes this fine-grained sample. Granoblastic quartz and feldspars fill the voids between biotite crystals. Small, equant opaqes are distributed evenly throughout.
In this sample, a spaced, anastamosing schistoscity defined by biotite, garnet, hornblende and opaques wraps around deformed feldspar lenses which display undulose extinction and bent growth as well as deformation twins. Polyganized quartz and feldspar mantles the feldspar porphyroclasts. Quartz ribbons are prevalent throughout this sample. The sense of shear is ambiguous.
Subhedral biotite and uralitized augite crystals are the prominent mafic phases in this sample, though olivine is also present in lesser amounts and as an inclusion in one of the two other mafic phases. K-feldspar, zeolites, and apatite are the primary leucocratic constituents. There is a good deal of intergrowth between and alteration of minerals in this thin section.
This is a very hypidiomorphic coarse-grained sample consisting of large grains of augite, frequently intergrown with opaques, and intergrown k-feldspar and nephaline. Augite is found altering to biotite. Radiating splays of zeolite are present to varying degrees within the three copies of this thin section.
Large, euhedral to subhedral plagioclase blocks are in far greater abundance than either k-feldspar or quartz, both of which are anhedral in shape. All the ferromagnesian phases are anhedral in shape and tend to cluster together. Hornblende growth is at the expense of clinopyroxene. Opaques cluster with the ferromagnesian phases. Quartz displays first-order yellows in this slightly thickened sample.
The feldspars in this thin section are partially sericitized and somewhat poikilitic and the biotite is substantially altered. Grains are generally anhedral in shape.
A groundmass of glass, clay, calcite, indiscernible quartzofeldspathic crystals, and small, spherical aggregates of chalcedony dominate this sample. Phenocrysts of biotite and calcite pseudomorphs after plagioclase (presumably) comprise the phaneritic crystal population.
The foliation in this coarse-grained rock is the result of compositional layering; discontinuous hornblende-rich zones separate poikiloblastic plagioclase-rich regions. Albite and Carlsbad twins in the feldspars are almost entirely obscured by randomly-oriented inclusions of sericite.
A few biotite phenocrysts punctuation this sample's fine-grained groundmass of unoriented elongate biotite, k-feldspar, nephaline crystals and anhedral calcite masses.
This fine-grained, hypidiomorphic, inequigranular plutonic rock is intermediate in composition, with plagioclase as the dominant feldspar. K-feldspar is present in much lower abundance, and quartz is scarce. Mafic phases include anhedral biotite and hornblende, the latter of which is strongly chloritized.
Elongate plagioclase laths with interstitial clinopyroxene and minor interstitial hornblende and biotite. Classic diabasic texture. Said by Western Minerals Inc. to be the youngest dolerite body in the area and was emplaced at much deeper crustal levels than the gabbros.
This sample is a strongly mylonitized pelitic schist with a continuous schistoscity defined by strongly alligned biotite, fibrous sillimanite, and opaques and interspersed with discontinuous quartz and k-feldspar ribbons. K-feldspar is strongly sericitized. The sense of shear is ambiguous.
The flame lamellae that pervade this thin section are cut thicker than ususal and thus display first order yellows and oranges, though the tartan twinning of the microcline retains the ususal first order grey birefringence. Grain boundaries between feldspars are lined with smaller feldspar grains, which gives the larger grains a scalloped appearance. The hornblende grains are highly irregular in shape and contain many inclusions of feldspar, opaques, biotite, and other unidentifiable phases.
Grain shapes in this thin section are consistantly anhedral. Weathering of the feldspars give them a dusty appearance. Because the thin section is cut too thick, the birefringence of quartz and some k-feldspars is as high as second order blues. Mnay hornblende crystals are nearly opaque and they are frequently found surrounding and likely replacing inclusions of pyroxene (perhaps). The biotite and hornblende are rather skeletal. Euhedral sphene and apatite are occasionally scattered throughout.
This generally allotriomprhic-equigranular thin section is thicker than standar thin sections, thus the quartz and some k-feldspar grains display first order red to pink colors. The riebeckite is nearly opaque in both plane and cross-polarized light.
This fine-grained granite contains abundant feldspars, many of which display concentric zoning from plagioclase cores to k-feldspar rims. Biotite grains are altering to and interfingered with chlorite. Rounded hornblende crystals are rare in this sample.
The feldspar grains in this thin section span a broad range of sizes, with larger grains displaying strong lamellae of either the blebby or flame variety. The mafic phases are anhedral to skeletal in shape and are much less abundant than the more felsic phases. The minerals in this thin section are highly fractured lending the appearance of porousness to this intrusive igneous rock.
Square phenocrysts of quartz and feldspar disrupt this porphyritic granite's otherwise mosaic of equigranular grains. Subhedral and partially resorbed biotite is scattered throughout.
Although the bulk of this thin section has an aplitic texture of quartz and feldspar, several larger feldspar phenocrysts punctuate the mosaic texture of the smaller population of quartzofeldspathic phases. Biotite is sparse and where present, skeletal in shape.
Most phases in this thin section are subhedral to anhedral in shape. The k-feldspar have patchy exsolution textures. Most other phases are sparsely distributed and generally subhedral to anhedral.
This coarse-grained sample contains phenocrysts of a wide variety of size and composition. The largest, visible in hand sample as whitish spheres with obvious rims, are intergrown, wedge-shaped k-feldspars and radiating blades of natrolite. A dusting of sericite throughout the k-feldspar gives a cloudy appearance to the these mineral aggregates. Randomly oriented grains of these same phases comprise the bulk of the 'groundmass' for this sample. Augite phenocrysts are the dominant mafic phase and display a variable degree of alteration to iddingsite?. A few grains of arfvedsonite can be seen associated with the pyroxenes.
