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PHONOLITE (Gr. ~vi7, See also: petrology, a See also: group of volcanic lavas containing much See also: nepheline and sanidine See also: felspar
.
The See also: term "clinkstone " was formerly given by geologists to many See also: fine grained compact lavas, which split into thin tough plates, and gave out a ringing See also: sound when struck with the See also: hammer
.
Some of these clinkstones were phonolites in the See also: modern sense, but as the name clinkstone was used for a large variety of rocks, many of which have no close See also: affinities with one another, it has been discarded and "phonolite " is substituted for it
.
The group includes rocks which are See also: rich in alkalis with only a moderate percentage of See also: silica; hence they contain no See also: free See also: quartz but much See also: alkali felspar (sanidine and anorthoclase) and nepheline
.
Large plates of sanidine are often visible in the rocks; the nepheline is usually not obvious to the unaided See also: eye
.
Most phonolites show fluxion structure, both in the See also: orientation of their phenocrysts and in the smaller crystals which make up the ground-mass; and this determines to a large extent the platy jointing
.
Although vitreous and pumiceous forms are known they are rare, and in the See also: great majority of cases these rocks are finely crystalline with a dull or shimmering lustre in the ground-mass
.
Marked characteristics are the readiness with which they decompose, and the frequency of See also: veins and cavities occupied by See also: natrolite, See also: analcite, See also: scolecite and other See also: zeolites
.
Small black grains of See also: augite or See also: hornblende and sometimes blue specks of hauyne may be seen in the rocks when they are fresh
.
The dominant minerals are sanidine, nepheline, See also: pyroxene, See also: amphibole, various felspathoids and iron oxides
..
The sanidine is usually in two generations, the first consisting of large crystals of flattened and See also: tabular shape, while the second generation is represented by small rectangular prisms arranged in parallel streams in the ground-mass; these felspars are nearly always simply twinned on the See also: Carlsbad See also: plan
.
They contain often as much soda as potash
.
The nepheline takes the See also: form of hexagonal prisms with flat ends, and may be completely replaced by fibrous zeolites, so that it can only be recognized by the outlines of its pseudomorphs
.
In some phonolites it is exceedingly abundantmagnetite and See also: zircon occur in the phonolites, and See also: sphene is often rather See also: common
.
Another See also: mineral which is more frequent in phonolites than in many other rocks is See also: brown melanite garnet
.
The majority of the rocks of this group are of
See also: Tertiary or See also: Recent age, but in Scotland Carboniferous phonolites occur in several localities, e.g
.
Traprain in See also: Haddingtonshire, also in the Eildon Hills and in See also: Renfrewshire
.
In See also: Brazil phonolites belonging to the same epoch are also known
.
There are several districts in See also: Europe where Tertiary or Recent phonolites occur in considerable numbers, as in See also: Auvergne (Mont Dore), the See also: Eifel, and Bohemia
.
The See also: Wolf See also: Rock which lies off the See also: south See also: coast of See also: Cornwall, and is the site of a well-known lighthouse, is the only mass of phonolite in See also: England; it is supposed to be the remains of a Tertiary See also: lava or intrusion
.
The See also: Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, See also: Sardinia, See also: Aden, See also: British See also: East See also: Africa and New Zealand contain many types of phonolites; they are known also in New South See also: Wales, while in the See also: United States phonolites occur in See also: Colorado (at Cripple Creek) and in the Black Hills of South Dakota
.
See also: Leucite occurs in place of nepheline in a small group of phonolites (the leucite-phonolites), known principally from Rocca Monfina and other places near Naples
.
Blue hauyne is rather a conspicuous mineral in some of these rocks, and they also contain a See also: good See also: deal of sphene
.
When sanidine, nepheline and leucite all occur together in a volcanic rock it is classed among the leucitophyres (see PETROLOGY, See also: Plate III. fig
.
2) . The chemical analyses of phonolites given below show that these rocks are very rich in alkalis and alumina with only a moderate amount of silica, while lime,See also: magnesia and iron oxides are See also: present only in small quantity
.
They have a close resemblance in these respects to the nepheline-syenites of which they provide the effusive types
.
(J
.
S
.
F.)
PHORCYS•(PHORCUS, PHORCYN), in See also: Greek See also: mythology, son of See also: Pontus (See also: Sea) and Gaea (See also: Earth), See also: father of the Graeae, the Gorgons, Scylla, and Ladon (the dragon that guarded the See also: golden apples of the See also: Hesperides)
.
In See also: Homer (Odyssey, xiii
.
96) he is an aged sea-deity, after whom a harbour in See also: Ithaca was named
.
According to Varro (quoted by Servius in Aeneid, V
.
824) Phorcys was a See also: king of
See also: Corsica and Sardinia, who, having been defeated by King See also: Atlas in a See also: naval engagement in the course of which he was drowned, was subsequently worshipped as a marine divinity
.
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