greisen

/gruy"zeuhn/, n.

a hydrothermally altered rock of granitic texture composed chiefly of quartz and mica, common in the tin mines of Europe.

[1875-80; < G]

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▪ rock

      modification of granite, an intrusive igneous rock; it consists essentially of quartz and white mica (muscovite) and is characterized by the absence of feldspar and biotite. The rock usually has a silvery, glittering appearance from the abundance of layered muscovite crystals, but many greisens resemble a pale granite. The white mica mostly forms large plates with imperfect crystalline outlines. The quartz is rich in fluid enclosures. The most common accessory minerals are tourmaline, topaz, apatite, fluorite, and iron oxides; altered feldspar and brown mica also may be present.

      Greisen occurs typically in belts or veins that intersect granite, and it passes into granite at the outer edges of these. The transition between the two rocks is gradual, indicating that the greisen has been produced through alteration of the granite by vapours or fluids rising through fissures. These vapours or fluids must contain fluorine, boron, and probably lithium, because these elements are contained in topaz, mica, and tourmaline, the new minerals of the granite. The change is induced by the vapours set free by the granite magma as it cools.

      Greisen is closely connected with schorl, both in its mineralogical composition and in its mode of origin. Schorl is a pneumatolytic product consisting of quartz, tourmaline, and, often, white mica and thus passes into greisen. Both of these rocks frequently contain small percentages of cassiterite (tin oxide) and may be worked as ores of tin; the central filling of the fissure often contains much wolframite, the chief ore of tungsten.

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