Spilite

spilite

[′spī‚līt]

(petrology)

An altered basalt containing albitized feldspar accompanied by low-temperature, hydrous crystallization products such as chlorite, calcite, and epidote.

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 It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Spilite

 

a paleotypal basaltic rock in which feldspar is represented by secondary albite. Spilites form as the result of underwater eruptions. Spilites have a microlithic or, less frquently, diabasic structure and consist of long, narrow microlites of albitized plagioclase with chlorite and ore minerals filling the spaces between the microlites. Together with keratophyres, spilites make up spilite-keratophyre formations of the geosynclinal stage of development of the mobile belts of the earth’s crust.

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