What is the meaning of Serpentinization?

: the process or state of alteration by which minerals (such as olivine) are converted into serpentine.

Why is it called serpentinite?

Serpentinite is a rock composed of one or more serpentine group minerals, the name originating from the similarity of the texture of the rock to that of the skin of a snake. The mineral alteration is particularly important at the sea floor at tectonic plate boundaries.

What is the color serpentine?

Named in allusion to its resemblance to a snake’s skin, serpentine is usually grayish, white, or green but may be yellow (chrysotile) or green-blue (antigorite); the green colour is due to iron replacing magnesium.

What is the process of Serpentinization?

Serpentinization is the process of hydrothermal alteration that transforms Fe-Mg-silicates such as olivine, pyroxene, or amphiboles contained in ultramafic rocks into serpentine minerals. Serpentine is a soft ductile mineral and its presence in the mantle wedge lubricates subduction of the oceanic plate.

Where is Dunite found?

Dunite is rarely found within continental rocks, but where it is found, it typically occurs at the base of ophiolite sequences where slabs of mantle rock from a subduction zone have been thrust onto continental crust by obduction during continental or island arc collisions (orogeny).

Why is Serpentinization important?

An important consequence of serpentinization is the production of heat. The geological significance of heat production is that serpentinization processes are capable of raising the rock temperature by about 260°C (550°F) when not including processes that lead to heat transport and cooling of the rock.

Where is serpentinite found?

Serpentinites and Serpentine Formation Ultramafic rocks are rare at Earth’s surface but are abundant at the oceanic moho, the boundary between the base of the oceanic crust and the upper mantle. They are metamorphosed at convergent plate boundaries where an oceanic plate is pushed down into the mantle.

What type of rock is chalk?

Chalk, a sedimentary rock, is a soft form of limestone that is not well cemented and thus is often powdery and brittle.

Is Jade a serpentine?

Serpentine may be confused with jadeite or nephrite because of its similar coloration, and is sometimes known as ‘Koren jade’, ‘serpentine jade’ or ‘new jade’. Serpentine however, is softer and scratches more easily than true jade, but it is often used as a jade substitute.

How many types of serpentine are there?

In mineralogy and gemology, serpentine may refer to any of 20 varieties belonging to the serpentine subgroup. Owing to admixture, these varieties are not always easy to individualize, and distinctions are not usually made. There are three important mineral polymorphs of serpentine: antigorite, chrysotile and lizardite.

What makes dunite unique?

Dunite is an ultramafic plutonic rock that is composed almost exclusively of olivine. “Ultramafic” means that mafic minerals form more than 90% on the rocks composition. Peridotite that contains more than 90% olivine have a special name, they are called dunite (named in 1864 after Dun mountain in New Zealand).

How dunite is formed?

Cumulative dunite is formed by fractionation of olivine from a mafic melt. Replacive dunite is a product of the reaction between a pyroxene-bearing host rock and an olivine-saturated magma, which dissolves orthopyroxene in the host peridotite and sometimes crystallizes olivine.

What is the meaning of the word serpentinization?

plural -s. : the process or state of alteration by which minerals (such as olivine) are converted into serpentine.

What kind of color does a serpentine have?

What is the color of Serpentine? Serpentine color will commonly be known for its variety of greens. However, serpentine can be found in colors such as white, yellow, black, brown, gray, and purple. Some of the best specimens of serpentine have a mixed color with greens and yellows.

What is the process of serpentinization in igneous rock?

serpentinization The process whereby high-temperature primary ferromagnesian minerals in an igneous rock undergo alteration to a member of the serpentine group of minerals.

Why is serpentinization an important geochemical reaction?

Hydrothermal vents in general and Lost City in particular, has sparked great interest in an important set of geochemical reactions named serpentinization (Schulte et al., 2006; Bach et al., 2006 ). The processes of serpentinization have been producing geological hydrogen for as long as there has been water on the Earth.