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Sample Y-Tsp

NavDat sample number 2911 · TUFF

Sample

Sample IDY-Tsp
Rock nameTUFF
Rock typeVOLCANIC
CompositionFELSIC
MaterialIGNEOUS
Collected byCharles J. Vitaliano
CommentActually a welded ash flow tuff, not a rhyolite flow forming vertical cliffs 10 to 12 ft high, particularly where overlain by the resistant Malpais Basalt. It is a brown to gray-brown porphyroclastic rock, with quartz and feldspar grains up to 2 mm long in an aphanitic matrix. Fragments of volcanic rock up to 1.25 cm square are scattered sparsely throughout, along with lenticular streaks of gray devitrified pumice and dark brown glassy fiamme. Parallelism of the pumice and fiamme gives the rock a streaky appearance which is further enhanced by flattened vesicles up to 5 cm long. In thin section, fragmented quartz and sanidine constitute up to 95% of the crystals, clinopyroxene the remainder. The matrix consists predominantly of flattened glass shards with a few grains of accessory apatite and magnetite. Eutaxitic texture is common throughout the rock. See Y-58N264.

Location

Latitude37.6944
Longitude-117.239
LocationEsmeralda County, NV
State / provinceNevada
Volcanic fieldGoldfield-Tonopah region, West-Central Nevada
Location commentSpearhead Rhyolite, from type locality; quarry near Rabbit Spring at the foot of Malpais Mesa, just S of Spearhead Point

Age

Age (Ma)ErrorMinMaxGeologic ageDated by
6.9 6.8 7

Analyses

No chemical analyses are stored for this sample.

References