Textures / Structures of Metamorphic
Rocks
Textures are the relationships of crystals and glass at the smallest scale; structures are larger-scale features, at times requiring a
whole outcrop to fully describe. (Note: much of this document comes from the SCMR at [Link]
Grain Size
• aphanitic (not often used in metamorphic rocks): grains too small to see without a microscope, but rock isn’t glassy
• phaneritic (not often used in metamorphic rocks): grains visible with the unaided eye
• fine grained: < 1 mm (average long dimension of grains)
• medium grained: 1 mm: 5 mm
• coarse grained: 5 mm: 3 cm
• very coarse grained: > 3 cm
• microcrystalline: individual crystals require a hand lens to discern
• cryptocrystalline: even in the microscope, individual crystals cannot be discerned
• porphyroblastic: (cf. porphyritic) some grains (the “porphyroblasts”) are markedly larger than others (the “matrix”)
Inclusion textures
• poikiloblastic: (cf. poikilitic) grains of one mineral (the “poikiloblasts”) completely enclose others (the “inclusions”)
• sieve texture: poikiloblastic in which the inclusions are abundant and fairly closely spaced
• helicitic = snowball: S-shaped trails of inclusions in a poikiloblast
Platy Elongate
Fabric terms
• foliation: a planar rock fabric
• lineation: a linear rock fabric
• mineral lineation = nematoblastic texture: containing a lineation Fol’n
defined by aligned elongate / acicular / fibrous minerals
• schistosity = lepidoblastic texture: containing a foliation defined by
aligned platy / micaceous / tabular minerals
• schistose structure: well developed schistosity, either uniformly or
closely spaced so the rock will split on < 1 cm scale
• gneissose structure = gneissosity: poorly developed, uniformly dis- Lin’n
tributed schistosity, or well-developed but spaced so the rock splits
on > 1 cm scale. Mineralogical layering is common.
• layered = banded structure: parallel, planar regions of varying miner-
alog occurrence and/or abundance, often with mica-rich regions dis-
tinct from quartz+feldspar-rich regions.
• cleavage: property of the rock to split along parallel closely spaced surfaces
• slaty cleavage: well developed schistosity and cleavage in a rock where matrix grains are too small to observe un-
aided and schistosity is uniformly present
• spaced schistosity: foliation with regularly spaced zones of schistose structure distinct from other regions without
(or with less developed) schistose structure.
• crenulation: small-scale (< 1 cm wavelength), regular folds
• crenulation cleavage: cleavage parallel to crenulations
• S-tectonite, L-tectonite, and LS-tectonite: Rock names used mainly by structural geologists that imply only fabric
development. L means a lineation is present; S means a foliation is present; LS means both are present. Better to
use a more mineralogically descriptive rock name and prefix with “foliated”, “lineated”, or “foliated and lineated”.
Metamorphic Textures
Page 2
Lack-of-fabric terms
• granofels structure: no schistosity present and grains are generally equant, or if inequant, then randomly oriented
• hornfelsic: having a granofels structure and microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline grain size in the matrix
• granoblastic texture: coarse-grained granofelsic rock with polygonal grains having generally planar boundaries
• polygonal = annealed texture: consisting of grains with polygonal shapes; boundaries of three equant grains will
intersect at 120°
Reaction / intergrowth textures
These terms refer to the texture itself, not the rock or the mineral grains.
• symplectitic: an intimate often vermicular (wormy) intergrowth of two minerals on the microscopic scale
• myrmekitic: a symplectite of quartz in plagioclase (often oligoclase); typically forms at the contact of K-feldspar
and plagioclase
• perthitic: sodic plagioclase lamellae within K-feldspar resulting from exsolution during cooling
• coronal: a concentric ring of one mineral around another
Crystal Perfection
These describe individual minerals, or relationships between two specific minerals
• euhedral = idioblastic: grains bounded by their own perfect to near-perfect crystal growth faces
• subhedral = subidioblastic: partly bound by its own growth faces, or growth faces only moderately well developed
• anhedral = xenoblastic: irregular; little or no evidence for its own growth faces
Crystalloblastic Series
Minerals higher in the series tend to form idioblastic surfaces against those lower in the series.
• magnetite, rutile, titanite
• andalusite, kyanite, garnet, staurolite, tourmaline
• epidote, zoisite, forsterite, lawsonite
• amphibole, pyroxene, wollastonite
• chlorite, talc, mica, prehnite, stilpnomelane
• calcite, dolomite
• cordierite, feldspar, scapolite
• quartz
Relationship between mineral growth and deformation
You can also describe the relationship between a mineral’s growth and a particular deformational feature or event (say, the
third schistosity to form in the rock) by referring to the structural code for that feature / event (e.g., “pre-S3”).
• prekinematic: mineral growth was completed prior to deformation
• synkinematic: the mineral growth occurred during deformation (most helicitic minerals form synkinematically)
• postkinematic: the mineral growth began following deformation
Other textural terms
• augen structure: containing eye-shaped strained relict feldspar phenocrysts
• relict: any texture or mineral inherited from the protolith (e.g., “relict K-feldspar phenocrysts”, or “relict cross-
bedding”)
• blastoporphyritic: relict porphyritic texture
• migmatite: mixture of igneous and metamorphic rocks due to partial melting
©2006 Dave Hirsch
