Terms to know before doing Metamorphic Rock Lab

Metamorphic textures:

1. Foliation
2. Slaty cleavage
3. Phyllitic texture
4. Schistosity
5. Gneissic texture (or gneissic banding)
6. Non-foliated

Terms:

1. low-grade vs. intermediate-grade vs. high-grade metamorphism
2. recrystallization
3. porphyroblast and porphyroblastic texture

• Be able to match the name with the texture
• Know something about the appearance and composition of each
• Be able to describe or recognize
• Know the parent rock (or precursor rock) of each

1. slate (clay minerals and minute muscovite crystals)
2. phyllite (slightly larger muscovite crystals, giving the rock a "frosted" sheen)
3. schist (visible, fairly large muscovite crystals)
4. gneiss
5. quartzite (dominated by quartz)
6. marble (dominated by calcite, or less commonly dolomite)
7. amphibolite
8. greenschist (foliated), greenstone (non-foliated), and metabasalt
9. serpentinite
10. metaconglomerate or stretched-pebble metaconglomerate
11. soapstone
12. hornfels (this is a contact metamorphic rock)

Types of schist are distinguished or named on the mineral content

1. staurolite (State Mineral of Georgia)
2. chlorite
3. garnet
4. kyanite
5. tourmaline
6. talc
7. asbestos
8. muscovite
9. biotite
10. amphibole
11. quartz
12. calcite