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Latite

 
(′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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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.

See also



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

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