Syenite

syenite

[′sī·ə‚nīt]

(petrology)

A visibly crystalline plutonic rock with granular texture composed largely of alkali feldspar, with subordinate plagioclose and mafic minerals; the intrusive equivalent of trachyte.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Syenite

 

a holocrystalline plutonic rock composed chiefly of orthoclase and plagioclase, with admixtures of the following ferrous minerals: hornblende, biotite, pyroxene, and, occasionally olivine. Quartz is also sometimes present.

Depending on the content of ferrous minerals, syenite is classified as hornblende syenite, micaceous syenite, quartz syenite, and so forth. Syenite is characterized chemically by a silica content of 55 to 65 percent; the alkali content determines the classification of syenite into normal and alkali types. In normal syenites plagioclases are present as oligoclase and andesite. Alkali syenites contain orthoclase and, more rarely, albite. Nephelines or other feldspathoids, such as leucite and the so-dalite group of minerals, are formed when the alkali content exceeds 12 percent and the silica content is reduced; alkali syenites thus grade into nepheline syenites or other feldspathoid syenites. Monzonites or gabbro syenites are similar to syenites. They are composed of labradorite and orthoclase with admixtures of ferrous minerals, such as pyroxene.

In the USSR, syenites are abundant in the southern Ukraine (Volyn’ Oblast), the Urals, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, and Middle Asia, where monzonites are found. Syenites are used for the same purposes as granites.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.