TONALITE

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 1 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: THE-TOO

TONALITE , in petrology, a

rock

of the diorite class, first described from Monte Adamello near Tonale in the Eastern Alps. It may be described as a quartz-diorite containing biotite and hornblende in nearly equal proportions. The principal felspar is plagioclase, but orthoclase occurs also, usually in small amount. Those varieties which are rich in orthoclase, in addition to plagioclase, have been called quartz-monzonites or adamellites, but a better

term

TERM

is grano-diorite, which has been very generally adopted in America for rocks which are intermediate in character between the granites and the diorites. The hornblende of the diorites is green, sometimes with a tinge of brown; the biotite is always brown and strongly pleochroic. Often these two minerals are clustered together irregularly or in parallel growths. They have generally a fairly strong tendency to idiomorphism, but may sometimes enclose plagioclase felspar in ophitic manner. Both of them decompose to chlorite,

epidote

EPIDOTE

and carbonates. The plagioclase felspar, which may form more than one-half of the

rock

, is andesine or oligoclase; simple crystals are rare, the

majority

MAJORITY (Fr. majorite; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major, greater)

being complex growths with centres of felspar rich in lime, while in the external zones the proportion of soda felspar increases greatly. The inner portions have often well-defined, but very irregular, boundaries, and are sometimes sponge-like, with the cayities filled up with a later, more acid, deposit. This seems to indicate that growth has taken place in stages, alternating with periods when the crystallized felspar was eroded or partly dissolved. The orthoclase sometimes forms irregular plates enclosing individuals of plagioclase. Quartz occurs both in irregular simple grains and as micropegmatite. Occasionally

pale

PALE (through Fr. pal, from Lat. palms, a stake, for paglus, from the
stem
- STEM (O. Eng. staefn, stemn, cf. Du. stain, Ger. Stamm, &c., probably related to " staff ")
pag- of pangere, to fix; "
pole
" is from the same original source)

green pyroxene is visible in the centre of crystals of dark green hornblende. The accessory minerals apatite, magnetite and zircon are always present, and very common also are orthite in coffee-coloured zonal prisms practically always encircled by yellow

epidote

EPIDOTE

, and reddish-brown crystals of sphene, simple or twinned.
In external

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

the tonalites are very like the granites but usually darker in colour. Tonalite-porphyrites often accompany them, having the same composition but with phenocrysts of felspar, quartz, hornblende and biotite in a fine-grained ground-mass. Veins and threads of fine grey rock, mainly composed of quartz and felspar, often intersect tonalite-masses and have been called tonalite-aplites, seeing that they

bear

the same relations to aplites as the aplites do to the granites. They contain more soda-lime felspar than the normal aplites. Towards their margins the larger alpine masses of tonalite often assume banded or gneissic facies, due apparently to

movement

MOVEMENT

during intrusion.

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