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Devitrification of cracked and brecciated Obsidian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Grenville A. J. Cole*
Affiliation:
Royal College of Science, Dublin

Extract

In examining a specimen of the rhyolitic lava-flow of the Rocehe Rosse, Lipari, in the collection of the Royal College of Science, London, I was struck by tile fact that the areas of pure black glass visible upon the fractured surface were each bordered by a band of spherulitic matter, the convex surfaces of the spherulites being directed inwards towards tile glassy area. The specimen, collected by Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., evidently comes from a portion of the flow which has become breceiated during movement of the viscid mass; intermingling of glassy and hemicrystalline matter has occurred, and an approach to the structure of the well-known "Piperno" of Naples has resulted. But the irregular little lumps of obsidian have not received their spherulitic crust from any chilling effect that they may have had upon the surrounding groundmass; the spherulites belong to the glass-fragments themselves, and are not deposited upon their surfaces.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1891

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References

page 272 note 1 See Prof. Judd, Volcanoes, p. 124.

page 273 note 1 “ On the microscopic’ characters of some specimens of Devitrified Glass.” Proc. Roy.Soc. Vol. XXXIX. pp. 87-107.

page 273 note 2 Ibid. p. 99.

page 273 note 3 Ibid.. p. 107.

page 273 note 4 Notes on alteration induced by Heat in certain Vitreous Rocks.” Proc. Roy, Soc. Vol. XL. p. 434.