Vitrophyre
vitrophyre
[′vi·trə‚fīr] (petrology)
Any porphyritic igneous rock whose groundmass is glassy. Also known as glass porphyry.
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 It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Vitrophyre
(from Latin vitrum, glass, and Greek porphyra, purple, crimson, dark-red), a general name for effusive rock consisting almost entirely of volcanic glass with a small quantity of mineral phenocrysts. Usually this is quartz or orthoclase porphyry with a glassy or cryptocrystalline base. The term “vitrophyre” is also used to refer to the structure of certain glassy rocks (so-called vitrophyric structure) containing a certain quantity of phenocrysts or microlites (for example, vitrophyric basalt, or vitrobasalt, and vitroandesite).
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.