| P number: | P521350 |
|---|---|
| Caption: | Rock specimen of peridotite. Fifteen thousand feet in escarpment at head of Glen Harris, west of Allival, Rum, Argyllshire, Scotland. |
| Description: | The rock is a coarse-grained grey igneous rock composed of mafic minerals, predominantly olivine and pyroxene. Peridotites are unusual in that they contain no feldspar minerals. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number EMC1070. A peridotite is a highly mafic rock consisting mainly of the mineral olivine with very little or no feldspar or quartz. It is typically coarse-grained, although it is subject to alteration and is commonly weathered to serpentinite. The term has been widely used since it was redefined by Rosenbusch in 1877. The peridotite is from a Tertiary central intrusion complex on Rum. The complex is one of several that form part a major igneous province that includes major centres on Skye, St. Kilda, Arran and Ardnamurchan. Each represents the core of a major central volcano. The general trend in the centres was firstly a vast outpouring of basalt plateau lavas of huge thicknesses, this was followed by explosion vents due to the uprise of acid (rhyolite) magma coincident with or preceding the emplacement of plutonic masses from ultrabasic to acidic composition. This was then followed by suites of minor intrusions, radial dykes and cone sheets. |
| Date taken: | 01/12/2002 |
| Photographer: | McTaggart, F.I. |
| Associate: | T.S. Bain |
| Copyright statement: | NERC |
| Additional information: | EMC1070 |
| Orientation: | Portrait |
| Size: | 265.48 KB; 794 x 1001 pixels; 67 x 85 mm (print at 300 DPI); 210 x 265 mm (screen at 96 DPI); |
| Average Rating: | Not yet rated |
| Categories: | Unsorted Images |
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