The Geology and Petrography of Crater Lake National Park, 1902
PART II.
BASALTS.
INTERSTITIAL BASALTS.
PORPHYRITIC-INTERSTITIAL BASALTS.
This type of basalts may be said to contain well-defined and usually abundant phenocrysts, always of olivine and generally also of plagioclase, hypersthene; and augite, in a groundmass that bears a more or less close resemblance to the interstitial basalts. As a rule, however, the groundmass is inclined to contain more glass and the minerals of the second generation have more sharply developed forms than is the case with the corresponding minerals that compose the interstitial basalts.
The lava of Desert Cone, immediately north of Red Cone, may be taken as the best example of this type of structure. Red Cone also is composed of basaltic lavas that belong to this type, but not entire so, as will appear later.
The lava of Desert Cone is represented by three specimens—No. 167 from the north side, near the summit, and Nos. 168 and 169 collected close together about 1 mile farther south on the southern slope. All three are very much alike. In the specimen from the north side olivine is the only phenocryst; in the two from the southern slope, in addition to olivine, plagioclase, in a rather subordinate role, occurs as a phenocryst.
The olivine in these specimens is to be seen in very sharp idiomorphic crystals and also in crystal fragments. They are particularly well adapted to a study of the crystallographic forms and optical properties. At first glance some of the olivine crystals, especially the fragments, resemble augite somewhat, the color being a light yellowish green. Irrespective of the crystal form, however, one can usually distinguish both the crystals and the fragments by their unusually rough appearing surface and by their high interference colors, also by the absence of well-defined cleavages. They usually appear in rectangular or hexagonal shapes. The dominant forms are the brachydome (021) and a prism. In sections cut parallel to the macropinacoid this combination gives hexagonal outlines, the angle formed by the trace of the brachydome being not far from 80°. Such a section also gives a positive bisectrix, with large optical angle (168).
In No. 169 the olivine phenocrysts have very sharply developed forms and show an extensive alteration to iron oxides. This alteration product occurs both as a broad rim and as finely granulated masses scattered throughout the crystal. In the very smallest crystals the olivine has been almost completely replaced; in the larger ones the unaltered olivine rarely composes more than one-half of the entire bulk and generally much less than one-half. This iron oxide alteration product consists sometimes of perfectly black, opaque material, which is presumably magnetite; in other cases the grains are slightly transparent and are of a deep red color, suggestive of hematite. Still more commonly both magnetite and hematite abound. In spite of the sharpness of the crystal forms the olivine phenocrysts are frequently penetrated by plagioclase laths, thus indicating a very basic feldspar. (See fig. L of Pl. XIV, p. 76.) These penetrating feldspar laths do not occur in the center, but only at the margin of the crystals; occasionally, also, one may see an olivine crystal impressing its form on a plagioclase phenocryst. This, however, is by no means as common as the other case. It would seem from this that the feldspars had commenced to crystalize out before the olivines had ceased to grow. Possibly they may have begun simultaneously with the olivines.
The only other phenocryst in this basalt is plagioclase, and even this is absent from one of the three specimens (167). It is by no means conspicuous nor very markedly different from the smaller feldspathic laths that make up the greater part of the groundmass. The shape is rectangular or long rectangular. The largest extinction angles noticed on sections cut perpendicular to the albitic twinning plane was 30° in No. 168 and 29° in No. 169. This does not indicate so extremely basic a feldspar as its relationships to olivine would suggest. Probably if the plagioclase phenocrysts were more numerous sections could be found showing larger extinction angles.
The groundmass appears to be nearly holocrystalline. It is composed of well-developed plagioclase laths of hardly more than microlitic proportions, augite in minute grains, or in both prisms and grains, and abundant magnetite in mostly very minute octahedrons and grains. Hematite powder is also abundantly developed in the groundmass of No. 169 as well as in the olivine phenocrysts. In addition to the above-named minerals hypersthene has been recognized in No. 168. It is entirely confined to the groundmass and occurs in but one generation. It forms very small prisms that measure 0.06 millimeter long by 0.01 millimeter wide and that very closely resemble similar prisms of augite. They are too small to show any pleochroism and are to be recognized only by their parallel extinctions and lower interference colors. In fact, it requires some little familiarity with these rocks before the distinction between the pyroxenes can be made.
In the southwest corner of the area covered by the Crater Lake map, and about half a mile south of the road, was collected a specimen of basalt, No. 170, that is closely connected with the interstitial basalts. In a groundmass composed of plagioclase laths, augite, hypersthene, and a little dust-laden glass occur perfectly developed comparatively large plagioclase phenocrysts that exactly resemble the andesitic plagioclases; also an occasional hypersthene, augite, and blood-red olivine crystal. The plagioclase is in broad crystals that show rectangular and six-sided outlines and, as in the andesites, zonal structure. The interior is crowded with glass inclosures, while the margin is free from the same, or else both the interior and the margin are clear, while the inclosures are confined to a narrow intermediate zone. One of these phenocrysts, cut perpendicular to the brachypinacoid, gave an extinction angle of 34°.
