What do xenoliths tell us about the earth?

Xenoliths and xenocrysts provide valuable information about the geology of the Earths mantle. Scientists study the chemical properties of xenoliths to understandthe depth at which they were formed. Many xenocrysts were created hundreds of kilometers within the Earth, far below the deepest mines and wells.

What are xenoliths used for?

Xenoliths are important because by studying xenoliths geologists can learn about the origin and evolution of the host rock. For example, when an igneous rock contains a xenolith, geologists know that at some point the magma or lava that cooled to form the igneous rock was in contact with that foreign rock.

What is xenoliths in geology?

A xenolith is a piece of rock trapped in another type of rock. Most of the time, a xenolith is a rock embedded in magma while the magma was cooling.

How do the xenoliths compare to the surrounding rock?

They have a different color and density than the surrounding igneous rock. Xenoliths can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a football, and as long as several meters. Xenoliths and xenocrysts are affected by temperature. A xenolith may lose its unique qualities if it melts into the surrounding magma.

What is xenolith analysis?

In geology, the term xenolith is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igneous rock entrained during magma ascent, emplacement and eruption. … Xenoliths and xenocrysts provide important information about the composition of the otherwise inaccessible mantle.

What are xenoliths quizlet?

A xenolith (Ancient Greek: “foreign rock”) is a rock fragment which becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter’s development and hardening. In geology, the term xenolith is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igneous rock during magma emplacement and eruption.

Where do kimberlites form?

Generally speaking, kimberlites are found only in cratons, the oldest surviving areas of continental crust, which form the nuclei of continental landmasses and have remained virtually unchanged since their formation eons ago.

How do kimberlites form?

Kimberlite pipes are created as magma flows through deep fractures in the Earth. The magma inside the kimberlite pipes acts like an elevator, pushing the diamonds and other rocks and minerals through the mantle and crust in just a few hours.

Are kimberlites valuable?

Economic importance of Kimberlite

Kimberlites are the most important source of diamonds in the world. About 6,400 kimberlite pipes have been discovered in the world, of those about 900 have been classified as diamondiferous, and of those just over 30 have been economic enough to diamond mine.

What are kimberlites quizlet?

kimberlite. rare type of ultramafic rock that can contain diamonds.

What rock makes diamonds?

kimberlite

Diamond is only formed at high pressures. It is found in kimberlite, an ultrabasic volcanic rock formed very deep in the Earth’s crust. The extreme pressures needed to form diamonds are only reached at depths greater than 150km.

What type of rock is kimberlite quizlet?

kimberlite, also called blue ground, a dark-coloured, heavy, often altered and brecciated (fragmented), intrusive igneous rock that contains diamonds in its rock matrix.

How do porphyritic textures form?

A porphyritic texture is developed when magma that has been slowly cooling and crystallising within the Earth’s crust is suddenly erupted at the surface, causing the remaining uncrystallised magma to cool rapidly. This texture is characteristic of most volcanic rocks.

What does a porphyritic texture indicate about the history of igneous rock?

What does a porphyritic texture indicate about the cooling history of an igneous rock? It indicates that crystals were formed at depth (slow cooling) and then the magma moved to a shallow depth or erupted (fast cooling).

What does the porphyritic texture tell you about the cooling history of the magma?

This porphyritic texture indicates that the magma sat and cooled a bit below the Earth’s surface, thus giving time for the large crystals to grow, before erupting onto the surface and cooling very quickly.

What does a porphyritic texture mean?

A porphyritic texture displays minerals in two distinct size populations: one or more minerals are consistently larger than the rest of the minerals in a rock. The extra large mineral grains are called phenocrysts.

What is the differences between phenocrysts and porphyritic?

Phaneritic: any coarse-grained igneous rock, often intrusive, usually formed as a result of a longer cooling history (ex. granite, gabbro). Porphyritic: an igneous rock with one mineral (called the phenocryst) exhibiting a grain size larger than the remainder of the minerals (called the groundmass).

Does obsidian exist?

obsidian, igneous rock occurring as a natural glass formed by the rapid cooling of viscous lava from volcanoes. Obsidian is extremely rich in silica (about 65 to 80 percent), is low in water, and has a chemical composition similar to rhyolite. Obsidian has a glassy lustre and is slightly harder than window glass.

What is porphyritic rock used for?

Thus, “imperial”-grade porphyry was prized for monuments and building projects in Imperial Rome and thereafter. Subsequently, the name was given to any igneous rocks with large crystals. The adjective porphyritic now refers to a certain texture of igneous rock regardless of its chemical and mineralogical composition.

How do you identify porphyritic rocks?

Porphyritic igneous rocks have coarse crystals in a fine background. Crystals are two to three times size of the matrix, and less than 10% of rock is crystals.

Why do porphyritic igneous rocks have the most complex cooling history?

Some igneous rocks undergo a complex cooling history as a result of the movement of magma to a different environment from which the initial cooling began resulting in large crystals (phenocrysts) embedded in a fine grained small crystal matrix (groundmass) resulting in a porphyritic texture.

What is a phenocrysts in geology?

A relatively large crystal embedded in a finer-grained or glassy igneous rock. The presence of phenocrysts gives the rock a porphyritic texture (see illustration). Phenocrysts are represented most commonly by feldspar, quartz, biotite, hornblende, pyroxene and olivine.

How do you identify phenocrysts?

A phenocryst is an early forming, relatively large and usually conspicuous crystal distinctly larger than the grains of the rock groundmass of an igneous rock. Such rocks that have a distinct difference in the size of the crystals are called porphyries, and the adjective porphyritic is used to describe them.

Why do phenocrysts form?

How Do Phenocrysts Form? Phenocrysts, as with any other rock forms from the cooling of molten rock or magma. There are primarily two drivers that determine the crystal size of minerals within a cooled and lithified rock. One is the rate at which the magma cools and the other is chemical composition.

Are phenocrysts igneous or metamorphic?

igneous rock

A phenocryst is a large crystal in an igneous rock. It is a cognate crystal, almost invariably early formed, and is genetically distinct from a xenocryst (Iddings, 1889).

What is a phenocryst quizlet?

A phenocryst is a relatively large and usually conspicuous crystal distinctly larger than the grains of the rock groundmass of a porphyritic igneous rock. Phenocrysts often have euhedral forms either due to early growth within a magma or by post-emplacement recrystallization.

Why are pegmatites called Nature’s jewelry box?

These pegmatites are sometimes called “nature’s jewel box” because of the vast array of gemstones that they may contain. In addition to the strategically important quartz and tourmaline, pegmatites are home to topaz, aquamarine and morganite beryl, kunzite, and many different species of garnet.