Diabase

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diabase (IPA: /ˈdʌɪəbeɪs/) is a mafic, holocrystalline, igneous rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro.

[edit] Description

Diabase normally has a fine, but visible texture of euhedral lath shaped plagioclase crystals set in a finer matrix of pyroxene, typically augite, with minor olivine and magnetite. Accessory and alteration minerals include hornblende, biotite, apatite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, serpentine, chlorite, and calcite. The texture is termed ophitic and is typical of diabases. The feldspar is high in anorthite (as opposed to albite), the calcium end member of the plagioclase Anorthite-Albite solid solution series, most commonly labradorite.

[edit] Locations

Diabase is usually found in smaller relatively shallow intrusive bodies such as dikes and sills. Diabase dikes occur in regions of crustal extension and often occur in dike swarms of hundreds of individual dikes or sills radiating from a single volcanic center.

[edit] Examples

The Palisades Sill which makes up the New Jersey Palisades on the Hudson River, near New York City, is an example of a diabase sill. The dike complexes of the Hebridean Tertiary volcanic province which includes Skye, Rum, Mull, and Arran of western Scotland, the Slieve Gullion region of Ireland, and extends across northern England contains many examples of diabase dike swarms. Diabase is also called dolerite in many older references.

During seven centuries a diabase formation called Runamo was famous in Scandinavia as a runic inscription, until it became the object of a famous scientific controversy in the first half of the 19th century.