Dikes

     Andesite Dikes

It would serve no good purpose to describe in detail the petrographic characters of the andesite dikes, since they closely resemble the andesite flows already discussed. Certain features, however, are worthy of mention.

Three dikes of andesite are exposed on the walls of Steel Bay. The easternmost of these has margins of black, glassy lava. The core, on the other hand, consists of almost holocrystalline, pale-gray andesite. Viewed in thin section, the paler core is seen to be made up largely of a dense pilotaxitic felt of oligoclase microliths and specks of augite with a small amount of interstitial glass (55 per cent). In this matrix lie phenocrysts of bytownite-andesine (30 per cent), granular ore (5 per cent), hypersthene (6 per cent), and augite (2 per cent). The pale core is somewhat more vesicular than the glassy selvage, and many of the vesicles are coated with crystals of cristobalite (2 per cent). The selvage, on the contrary, contains no cristobalite.

West of this dike is a much larger intrusion which connects in its upper part with a long flow of lava. This intrusion is distinctive in having no glassy selvage and in carrying unusually abundant and large basic inclusions. Locally these inclusions are as voluminous as the enclosing andesite. The latter is a pilotaxitic hypersthene-augite andesite, and except in one particular does not differ from the normal andesite flows. This exceptional feature is the presence of abundant wedge-shaped twins of tridymite which partly fill cavities. In one section, the mineral constitutes as much as 3 per cent of the whole. Cristobalite, on the other hand, is absent.

The inclusions in this dike are very porous. Their texture is best described as diktytaxitic and pseudolamprophyric. Essentially, they are composed of a crisscross felt of labradorite laths (65 per cent), slender hypersthene prisms partly rimmed by secondary ore and occasionally enclosed in jackets of augite (15 per cent), stumpy prisms of augite (5 per cent), and granular magnetite (5 per cent). Between these is a matrix partly made up of devitrified glass (2 per cent), but mainly of tridymite (6 per cent) and cristobalite (2 per cent). The occurrence of both forms of silica in the inclusions is thus in contrast with the development of tridymite alone in the enclosing andesite.

The third dike on the walls of Steel Bay also served as a feeder to a surface flow. This differs from the preceding chiefly in having a glassy selvage and pale, vesicular, holocrystalline core, and in being almost wholly devoid of basic inclusions.

Of all the dikes on the caldera walls, the most conspicuous and thickest is the Devil's Backbone. Like the dike just mentioned, it gradually changes from coarsely pilotaxitic in the center to hyalopilitic toward the margins, and is invariably rich in microlithic oligoclase. In the same direction there is a diminution in the number of cristobalite crystals lining the vesicles. Few of the Crater Lake dikes contain this mineral in greater abundance. From the analysis of a sample of the Devil's Backbone (no. 15), the similarity of the dike rock to the andesite flows is immediately apparent.

The dike on the wall of Grotto Cove is essentially like the Devil's Backbone. So are the two dikes on the walls below Sentinel Point and the one below Sun Notch, except that they lack both tridymite and cristobalite, and occasionally carry olivine.

Another dike, particularly interesting on account of its alteration, is the one which descends to the edge of the lake at Eagle Point. Most of this intrusion consists of dense, black andesite. In thin section, half of the rock is seen to be composed of devitrified glass rendered almost opaque by dusty ore. Almost as voluminous are large, spongy zoned phenocrysts of andesine-labradorite. The remainder is made up of hypersthene prisms (5 per cent) partly altered to ?bowlingite, less altered crystals of augite (3 per cent), and rare grains of olivine. Contrasting strongly with this dark andesite is a pale sage-green "propylitic" type which is largely confined to the margins of the intrusion. Normally, as we have seen, the edges of dikes are finer-grained than the interior, but here the reverse is true. Moreover, the pyroxene crystals, and especially those of hypersthene, are more thoroughly altered to serpentine than in the central part of the dike. Calcite is sprinkled throughout, particularly along cracks in the porphyritic feldspar. Finally, the joint faces are lined locally with opal and radiating prisms of quartz. Since in most other dikes it is the central part which is most altered, it may be supposed that the changes visible in the Eagle Point intrusion are the result, not of the concentration of residual solutions during solidification, but of later solfataric action which has similarly affected the neighboring lavas.

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