A mantle xenolith (dunite) infiltrated by mafic melt on the left side. The melt has crystallized clinopyroxene, as shown by this electron backscattered diffraction image. Each pixel's data is a diffraction pattern that can determine mineral type and crystallographic orientation.
Wednesday, early afternoon posters at #AGU23
MR31B-0084 Effects of melt-rock interactions on deformation fabrics and rock physical properties in the shallow mantle lithosphere
James Kirkpatrick presenting, but this is the the M.Sc. work of Arvid Gonzalez (now core-logging in n. QC). Other authors are myself and Caroline Seyler (U. Minnesota).
Arvid found that infiltrating mafic melt reduces the preserved strain in mantle olivine.
#McGillUniversity #Mantle #EBSD #Xenolith #Lithosphere #Olivine
X is for Xenolith (and Xenocryst)
“A xenolith ("foreign rock") is a rock fragment (country rock) that becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and solidification. In geology, the term xenolith is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igneous rock entrained during magma ascent, emplacement and eruption. Xenoliths may be engulfed along the margins of a magma chamber, torn loose from the walls of an erupting lava conduit or explosive diatreme or picked up along the base of a flowing body of lava on the Earth's surface. A xenocryst is an individual foreign crystal included within an igneous body. Examples of xenocrysts are quartz crystals in a silica-deficient lava and diamonds within kimberlite diatremes.”
~ From Wikipedia
See more: https://blogs.agu.org/georneys/2011/05/18/geology-word-of-the-week-x-is-for-xenolith/
Mafic xenolith, Ontario, Canada, 2002. Photo Credit: Ron Schott. Note: Sorry for the re-post. This post was lost and then mangled somewhat in the blogger mishap last week. I managed to correct the post, but I had to re-post it under a new day and time. def. Xenolith:A foreign rock inclusion, usually in an igeneous rock. Xenolith literally means “foreign rock” coming from “xenos” (foreign) and “lithos” (stone) in Ancient …