The mechanism of replacement as illustrated by metasomatism of the Whin Sill

Extract

Where the solutions which carried the lead vein minerals pass along joint planes through the Whin Sill, the dolerite is altered to a white, compact rock for a distance of several feet. The original texture is well preserved in the altered dolerite; the ferromagnesium minerals are replaced by calcium, magnesium and iron carbonate, the feldspars by a minutely crystalline mixture of kaolin and muscovite and the ilmenite by small rutile crystals. The former areas of interstitial quartz are increased and apatite remains completely unchanged. The microscopic evidence that there is neither gain nor loss of alumina during the metasomatism, taken in conjunction with analyses of altered and unaltered rock, may be used to prove that there was a contraction of about 14% during metasomatism. This result is corroborated by the occurrence of cracks which are formed by shrinkage during metasomatism and which are now filled with carbonates.