msa-pegmatite@minlists.org

MSA-Pegmatite Interest Group

View all threads

Aplite

MI
MSA-Pegmatite Interest Group
Thu, Aug 21, 2025 3:24 PM

Hello PIGs:
Here is a question for all regarding the occurrence of massive or layered albitic aplite bodies in pegmatites. About those aplites, Dick Jahns (1982) wrote this:
“…if a large mass consisting mainly or wholly of K-feldspar is recognizable in a zoned pegmatite body, a corresponding concentration of relatively fine-grained, albite-rich rock can be found in its footwall or keelward parts. This has been confirmed in many natural and artificial exposures, and no exception is yet known to the writer. (p. 298)
Is anyone aware of a pegmatite body in which sodic aplite formed on the hanging wall side, overlying coarsely crystalline potassic pegmatite that crystallized up from the footwall contact? I know of only one: Hale-Walker pegmatite, Portland, Connecticut.

David London
Pegmatite Interest Group: https://msaweb.org/pegmatites/

Hello PIGs: Here is a question for all regarding the occurrence of massive or layered albitic aplite bodies in pegmatites. About those aplites, Dick Jahns (1982) wrote this: “…if a large mass consisting mainly or wholly of K-feldspar is recognizable in a zoned pegmatite body, a corresponding concentration of relatively fine-grained, albite-rich rock can be found in its footwall or keelward parts. This has been confirmed in many natural and artificial exposures, and no exception is yet known to the writer. (p. 298) Is anyone aware of a pegmatite body in which sodic aplite formed on the hanging wall side, overlying coarsely crystalline potassic pegmatite that crystallized up from the footwall contact? I know of only one: Hale-Walker pegmatite, Portland, Connecticut. David London Pegmatite Interest Group: https://msaweb.org/pegmatites/