spessartite
(ˈspɛsətaɪt)
[f. as spessartine: see -ite1.]
1. Min. = spessartine. Chiefly N. Amer.
| 1868 J. D. Dana Syst. Mineral. (ed. 5) 268 Manganese-Aluminagarnet; Spessartite. 1910 [see spessartine]. 1934 G. L. English Getting acquainted with Minerals ii. 228 Some of the fine garnets of Delaware County, Pennsylvania are spessartite. 1953 F. H. Pough Field Guide to Rocks & Minerals ii. 296 Spessartite is less common and not often properly identified when it is in a schist. 1971 R. Purvis Treasure Hunting in Brit. Columbia i. 21/2 Spessartite is pink to dark brown. |
2. Petrogr. [ad. G. spessartit (H. Rosenbusch Mikrosk. Physiogr. (ed. 3) (1896) II. 529).] A porphyritic lamprophyre in which the feldspar is sodic plagioclase and the phenocrysts consist of an amphibole or pyroxene, usu. green hornblende.
| 1908 P. MacNair Geol. & Scenery of Grampians II. x. 64 Dykes and sills of lamprophyre, including kersantites, vogesites, and spessartites, are..to be met with throughout the Highlands. 1930 Peach & Horne Chapters Geol. Scotland iv. 108 The dark basic sills in the dolomites of the Assynt region..include representations of vogesites and spessartites. 1966 [see lamprophyre s.v. lampro-]. 1970 Jrnl. Geol. LXXVIII. 742/1 The dikelets probably formed during later stages of crystallization of the spessartite. |