Textures / Structures of Metamorphic Rocks

Textures are the relationships of crystals and glass at the smallest scale; structures are larger-scale features, at times requiring a whole outcrop to fully describe. (Note: much of this document comes from the SCMR at http://www.bgs.ac.uk/SCMR/)

Grain Size
aphanitic (not often used in metamorphic rocks): grains too small to see without a microscope, but rock isnt glassy phaneritic (not often used in metamorphic rocks): grains visible with the unaided eye ne grained: < 1 mm (average long dimension of grains) medium grained: 1 mm: 5 mm coarse grained: 5 mm: 3 cm very coarse grained: > 3 cm microcrystalline: individual crystals require a hand lens to discern cryptocrystalline: even in the microscope, individual crystals cannot be discerned porphyroblastic: (cf. porphyritic) some grains (the porphyroblasts) are markedly larger than others (the matrix)

Inclusion textures
poikiloblastic: (cf. poikilitic) grains of one mineral (the poikiloblasts) completely enclose others (the inclusions) sieve texture: poikiloblastic in which the inclusions are abundant and fairly closely spaced helicitic = snowball: S-shaped trails of inclusions in a poikiloblast

Fabric terms

Platy

Elongate

foliation: a planar rock fabric lineation: a linear rock fabric mineral lineation = nematoblastic texture: containing a lineation Foln dened by aligned elongate / acicular / brous minerals schistosity = lepidoblastic texture: containing a foliation dened by aligned platy / micaceous / tabular minerals schistose structure: well developed schistosity, either uniformly or closely spaced so the rock will split on < 1 cm scale gneissose structure = gneissosity: poorly developed, uniformly disLinn tributed schistosity, or well-developed but spaced so the rock splits on > 1 cm scale. Mineralogical layering is common. layered = banded structure: parallel, planar regions of varying mineralog occurrence and/or abundance, often with mica-rich regions distinct from quartz+feldspar-rich regions. cleavage: property of the rock to split along parallel closely spaced surfaces slaty cleavage: well developed schistosity and cleavage in a rock where matrix grains are too small to observe unaided and schistosity is uniformly present spaced schistosity: foliation with regularly spaced zones of schistose structure distinct from other regions without (or with less developed) schistose structure. crenulation: small-scale (< 1 cm wavelength), regular folds crenulation cleavage: cleavage parallel to crenulations S-tectonite, L-tectonite, and LS-tectonite: Rock names used mainly by structural geologists that imply only fabric development. L means a lineation is present; S means a foliation is present; LS means both are present. Better to use a more mineralogically descriptive rock name and prex with foliated, lineated, or foliated and lineated.

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Lack-of-fabric terms
granofels structure: no schistosity present and grains are generally equant, or if inequant, then randomly oriented hornfelsic: having a granofels structure and microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline grain size in the matrix granoblastic texture: coarse-grained granofelsic rock with polygonal grains having generally planar boundaries polygonal = annealed texture: consisting of grains with polygonal shapes; boundaries of three equant grains will intersect at 120

Reaction / intergrowth textures

These terms refer to the texture itself, not the rock or the mineral grains. symplectitic: an intimate often vermicular (wormy) intergrowth of two minerals on the microscopic scale myrmekitic: a symplectite of quartz in plagioclase (often oligoclase); typically forms at the contact of K-feldspar and plagioclase perthitic: sodic plagioclase lamellae within K-feldspar resulting from exsolution during cooling coronal: a concentric ring of one mineral around another

Crystal Perfection
These describe individual minerals, or relationships between two specic minerals euhedral = idioblastic: grains bounded by their own perfect to near-perfect crystal growth faces subhedral = subidioblastic: partly bound by its own growth faces, or growth faces only moderately well developed anhedral = xenoblastic: irregular; little or no evidence for its own growth faces

Crystalloblastic Series
Minerals higher in the series tend to form idioblastic surfaces against those lower in the series. magnetite, rutile, titanite andalusite, kyanite, garnet, staurolite, tourmaline epidote, zoisite, forsterite, lawsonite amphibole, pyroxene, wollastonite chlorite, talc, mica, prehnite, stilpnomelane calcite, dolomite cordierite, feldspar, scapolite quartz

Relationship between mineral growth and deformation

You can also describe the relationship between a minerals growth and a particular deformational feature or event (say, the third schistosity to form in the rock) by referring to the structural code for that feature / event (e.g., pre-S3). prekinematic: mineral growth was completed prior to deformation synkinematic: the mineral growth occurred during deformation (most helicitic minerals form synkinematically) postkinematic: the mineral growth began following deformation

Other textural terms

augen structure: containing eye-shaped strained relict feldspar phenocrysts relict: any texture or mineral inherited from the protolith (e.g., relict K-feldspar phenocrysts, or relict crossbedding) blastoporphyritic: relict porphyritic texture migmatite: mixture of igneous and metamorphic rocks due to partial melting

2006 Dave Hirsch