Sieve textured plagioclase blocks and laths dominate the phenocrystic population in this microporphyritic vesicular basalt. Clinopyroxene phenocrysts are less abundant and olivine less abundant still. All three phases are found in the groundmass. Groundmass clinopyroxene and olivine are more abundant than in BATUR 94 FL.
Sieve textured plagioclase blocks and laths dominate the phenocrystic population in this microporphyritic vesicular basalt. Clinopyroxene phenocrysts are less abundant. Both phases are found with glass as constituents of the groundmass.
This coarse-grained sample consists of large, euhedral, often twinned clinopyroxene crystals. Alteration along cracks contains minor chlorite.
Described by Western Minerals Inc. as 'porphyroblastic metasediments/hybrid rocks, interpreted by Eales and his coworkers as metamorphosed 'Red Beds' Formation sediments but conceivably magmatic in origin. The specimens illustrate the range in textures and compositions.' If so, textures in this sample, though difficult to describe, better resemble those of igneous than sedimentary rocks. This sample is jumbled mess of bladed, graphically intergrown k-feldspar and clinopyroxene, subhedral plagioclase altering to a dendritic, cloudy mineral, patches of anhedral, granular quartz, and elongate, poikilitic opaques.
Plagioclase and clinopyroxene form subhedral, unaltered grains amongst a background of finer-grained, intermingled iddingsite and zeolites. Iddingsite may be a pseudomorph after biotite. Described by Western Minerals Inc. as an 'interstitial ferrotholeiite, very highly fractionated…textures are similar to those associated with rapidly frozen or highly viscous melts.'
Plagioclase and clinopyroxene abundances are lower in this gabbro compared to others of Birds River. Radiating splays of zeolites with serpentinized margins, as well as iddingsite and chlorite replacement of an equant mineral phase contributes nearly half the bulk of the thin section.
The salt-n-pepper groundmass of opaques, pyroxenes, and feldspars appears almost intserstitial due to the high abundance of microphenocrysts. The phenocrystic population is dominated by subhedral plagioclase and, to a much lesser degree, clinopyroxene. Rounded, phenocryst-sized pockets of granular quartz are found throughout the groundmass.
Based on grain size, two populations of pyroxenes and plagioclase exist in this sample; the first are the fine-grained, equant crystals of the glassy groundmass, and the second, the subhedral to anhedral phenocrysts visible in handsample. The inconsistently-shaped plagioclase grains are sometimes zoned and frequently contain inclusions of glass.
Subhedral phenocrysts of plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and olivine are scattered randomly throughout this basalt. Plagioclase has a sieve texture and is frequently zoned. The corners of most grains are rounded. Both clinopyroxene and olivine are generally equant in shape and olivine is more abundant than the pyroxene. All three phases show some degree of resorption. The groundmass contains moderately-sized crystals of all three phases. This sample is very fresh and unaltered.
Plagioclase laths in this thin section have a continuous gradation in size from groundmass to phenocrysts. Most are euhedral in shape and this phase makes up roughly 70-80% of the minerals in this sample. Subhedral clinopyroxene makes up the remaining 20-30% of the minerals. The larger, blocky plagioclase is locally zoned and a sieve texture is observable in some grains.
Unoriented plagioclase laths and interstitial glass and clinopyroxene make up the groundmass of this vesicular basalt. Olivine and orthopyroxene microphenocrysts are scattered throughout.
Allotriomorphic plagioclase and highly-fractured olivine are the dominant minerals in this thin section. Clinopyroxene, when present, is found adjacent to olivine. Fractured zones in this rock follow olivine clusters and frequently cross-cut plagioclase crystals in swarms between nodes of granular olivine.
Granular, inequigranular gabbro containing occasional olivine crystals. Serpentine is localized to fractures. Grain shapes are very rounded and amorphous.
Clinopyroxene and plagioclase crystals with a hypidiomorphic granular texture. Clinopyroxene is cloudy and patchy in appearance due to alteration by a fine-grained material. Alteration by randomly-oriented, feathery chlorite pervades grain boundaries and fractures in the thin section.
Like KRB10, plagioclase and clinopyroxene are intergrown in an almost graphic texture, though where KRB10 was dominated by the unknown mineral, in KRB11, that unknown mineral is confined to spherulite-like clusters in a fine-grained quartz matrix. Iddingsite alteration is much less extensive. Western Minerals Inc. as an 'interstitial ferrotholeiite, very highly fractionated…textures are similar to those associated with rapidly frozen or highly viscous melts.'
Plagioclase and clinopyroxene form subhedral, unaltered grains amongst a background of finer-grained, intermingled iddingsite and zeolites. Described by Western Minerals Inc. as an 'interstitial ferrotholeiite, very highly fractionated…textures are similar to those associated with rapidly frozen or highly viscous melts.'
The glassy groundmass contains small plagiocase and clinopyroxene crystals, both of which are found as microphenocrysts. Plagioclase grains are variable in size and subhedral in shape. Clinopyroxene phenocrysts are substaniatlly larger, often due to the formation of glomeroporphyroclasts.
The clinopyroxene abundance in this thin section is lower than other gabbros from Birds River, lending more of a subophitic texture to the rock. Plagioclase is the most dominant mineral. Iddingsite is less abundant.
Texturally, this thin section still resembles a gabbro, with the exception of several talc and serpentine filled veins cross cutting the otherwise equigranular mosaic of clinopyroxene and olivine.
The unknown mineral is the prominent mineral in this thin section. It forms a dusty brown, isotropic matrix with a faint dendritic texture in which subhedral clinopyroxene and plagioclase grains are set. Clinopyroxene, where isolated, is strongly altered to iddingsite. The degree of alteration is much lower where plagioclase and clinopyroxene grains are intergrown. The two minerals have an almost graphic intergrowth texture. Western Minerals Inc. as an 'interstitial ferrotholeiite, very highly fractionated…textures are similar to those associated with rapidly frozen or highly viscous melts.'
The range in grain size for the plagioclase laths in this thin section is continual from the groundmass euhedral microlites to the subhedral phenocrysts. Concentric zoning and sieve textures are common in the plagioclase phenocrysts. Clinopyroxene phenocrysts are also subhedral, commonly twinned, and infrequently clustered in glomeroporhpyroclasts. In addition to plagioclase, the groundmass contains clinopyroxene, opaques, and serpentine.
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.
The dominant texture in this gabbro is an ophitic intergrowth of equant plagioclase laths within larger, subhedral, clinopyroxene grains. Alteration of some phases to chlorite, talc and iddingsite is localized and occurs more in non-ophitic sections of the rock.
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.
The k-feldspar in this thin section is unaltered and displays albite and tartan twins and beautiful flame lamellae. The grain boundaries between feldspars are often sutured. Interstitial calcite is present. Anhedral and altered hornblende, clinopyroxene, and biotite are distributed randomly throughout.
