Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T03:28:32.964Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An investigation of nephrite jade by electron microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

M. Dorling
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL
J. Zussman
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL

Abstract

Two specimens of tremolite and one of richterite, all with nephrite jade texture, have been examined by transmission electron microscopy using ion-thinning for specimen preparation. The specimens contain clusters of very small lath-like crystallites with z-axes approximately parallel but in a range of azimuthal orientations. It is suggested that these clusters which are themselves in varied orientations are the result of post-tectonic recrystallization of strained amphibole crystals, the new crystals inheriting the z-axis orientations of the old. The extreme toughness of nephrite jade is attributed to a number of the sub-microscopic features observed, including the sizes, habits, and orientations of its crystallites, and the nature of its grain boundaries.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1985 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bradt, R. C., Newnham, R. E., Biggers, J. V. (1973) Am. Mineral. 58, 727-32.Google Scholar
Cahn, R. W. (1970) Recovery and recrystallization. In Physical metallurgy. 2nd edn. (Cahn, R. W., ed.). North-Holland Publ. Co. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Chadwick, G. A. (1980) Metallography of phase transformations. Central Printing Unit, Univ. Southampton.Google Scholar
Champness, P. E., and Lorimer, G. W. (1971) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 33, 171-83.Google Scholar
Hobbs, B. E., Means, W. D., and Williams, P. F. (1976) An outline of structural geology. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York.Google Scholar
Hockely, J. J., Birch, W. D., and Worner, H. K. (1978) J. Geol. Soc. Austral. 25, 249-54.Google Scholar
Hutchison, J. L., Jefferson, D. A., and Mallinson, L. G. (1976) Mater. Res. Bull. 11, 1557-62.Google Scholar
Jefferson, D. A., Mallinson, L. G., Hutchison, J. L., and Thomas, J. L. (1978) Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 66, 1-4.Google Scholar
Kretz, R. (1966) J. Petrol. 7, 6894.Google Scholar
Learning, S. F. (1978) Jade in Canada. Paper 78-19, Energy, Mines and Resources, Canada.Google Scholar
Lister, G. S., and Price, G. P. (1978) Tectonophys. 49, 3778.Google Scholar
Mallinson, L. G. (1980) Acta Crystallogr. 36A, 378-81.Google Scholar
Mallinson, L. G., Hutchison, J. L., and Jefferson, D. A. (1977) J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Comm. 910.Google Scholar
Mallinson, L. G., Jefferson, D. A., Thomas, J. M., and Hutchison, J. L. (1980) Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London A, 295, 537-52.Google Scholar
Nichol, D. (1974) Nephrite jade deposits near Cowell, Eyre Peninsula. Dept. Mines, South Australia.Google Scholar
Rowcliffe, D. J., and Frühauf, V. (1977) J. Mater. Sci. 12, 35-42.Google Scholar
Turner, F. J. (1935) Trans. Proc. R. Soc. New Zealand, 65, part 2, October 1935.Google Scholar
Veblen, D. R. (1981) Non-classical pyriboles and poly-somatic reactions in biopyriboles. In Amphiboles and other hydrous pyribotes- —mineralo#y. (Vehlen, D. R., ed.). Reviews in Mineralogy 9A, Mineral. Soc. Am. 223.Google Scholar
Vernon, R. H. (1976) Metamorphic Processes. Reactions and microstructure development. Allen and Unwin, Ltd. London.Google Scholar
Voll, G. (1960) Liverpool Manchester Geol. J. 2, 503-67.Google Scholar