Kalgan volcanic complex: optical properties of its alkali feldspar phenocrysts |
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| Abstract: | The Mesozoic Kalgan volcanic complex is distributed around the city of Kalgan in an area of about 1000–1200 km2 and contains a great variety of rocks, among which are basalts, augite clacites, quartz-trachytes, quartz porphyry, rhyolite and various kinds of glassy rocks, tuffs and other volcanic ejecta. These diverse forms of volcanic rock impart the splendid geomorphological features. Six extinct craters were found, all of the central type; positions of eruptive centers were shifted from the southeast of the area in the early period to the northwest later. Two vertical sections of volcanic bodies of quartz porphyry and rhyolite were chosen to study precisely the optical angles of feldspars from each specimen. Results showed that there are different variation features of 2V between the basal, intermediate and top portions of volcanic bodies. Values of 2V are smaller, and of 2Vd, greater in the basal and top portions than those in the intermediate portions. Two main varieties of alkali feldspar occur in the Kalgan volcanic rocks. One is high temperature variety-low sanidine (–)2V=26°?40°, distributed mainly in the rhyolite and glassy rocks; another is the intermediate temperature variety-high orthoclase (–)2V=40°–62° , found mostly in the quartz porphyry. But their compositions are all in the intermediate range of K-Na feldspar series. Variations of the optical angles of alkali feldspar in the Kalgan complex proved that 2V is a sensitive optical constant of petrogenesis. Its variation is not only shown in one and the same extrusive or intrusive body, but also in one and the same specimen of rocks or crystal, with some definite regulations. – Author. |
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