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Latite

 
Sci-Tech Dictionary: latite
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(′lā′tīt)

(petrology) A not visibly crystalline rock of volcanic origin composed chiefly of sodic plagioclase and alkali feldspar with subordinate quantities of dark-colored minerals in a finely crystalline to glassy groundmass.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: latite
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Type of igneous rock that is abundant in western North America. Usually white, yellowish, pinkish, or gray, it is the volcanic equivalent of monzonite. Latites contain plagioclase feldspar (andesine or oligoclase) as large, single crystals (phenocrysts) in a fine-grained matrix of orthoclase feldspar and augite.

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Wikipedia: Latite
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Latite from Boxberg, High-Eifel, Germany
Photomicrograph of thin section of latite (in plane polarised light)
Photomicrograph of thin section of latite (in cross polarised light)

Latite is an igneous, volcanic (extrusive) rock, with aphanitic-aphyric to aphyric-porphyritic texture. Its mineral assemblage is usually alkali feldspar and plagioclase (in a ratio < 1:4). Quartz is absent in a feldspathoid-bearing latite, and olivine is absent in a quartz-bearing latite. Biotite, hornblende, pyroxene and scarce olivine or quartz are common accessory minerals.

Rhomb porphyries are an unusual variety with gray-white porphyritic rhomb shaped phenocrysts embedded in a very fine grained red-brown matrix. The composition of rhomb porphyry places it in the trachyte - latite classification of the QAPF diagram.

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Dacite (mineralogy and petrology)
Trachyte (mineralogy and petrology)
Phonolite (mineralogy and petrology)

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Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Latite".  Read more