dacite - student specimens of gray porphyritic dacite - UNIT OF 5 SPECIMENS

Dacite was a common rock in the Archean continents, forming when hot young oceanic crust subducted beneath thick continental plates. As the hot oceanic plate subducted into the mantle, it partially melted, dewatered and became hydothermally altered, with the melt gaining quartz and sodium and forming a magma that differentiated and became even more sodium and silica rich as it rose. As it cooled near the surface, quartz (sodium silicate), plagioclase (sodium feldspar) and hornblende crystallized.

Today, subducting oceanic crust is colder and does not melt before dewatering, inhibiting the formation of dacite. Dacite is the volcanic equivalent of granodiorite and can be thought of as a quartz rich andesite. This dacite was intruded during the Tertiary. The phenocrysts are plagioclase and quartz, with smaller biotite.

Secondary students should be able to identify this as a porphyry because of the phenocrysts - the larger crystals of quartz and feldspar that are surrounded by a finer gray groundmass - and because of the color, they should see that it is intermediate between oceanic basalts (dark and dense) and granitic continental rocks (lighter and less dense).

If you are a science or earth science teacher purchasing this as teaching specimens for your class, this rock should be compared with the intermediate igneous rocks andesite and its plutonic equivalent, granodiorite, as well as with a porphyry that spent more time deep below the surface - allowing the phenocrysts of feldspar to become much larger.

Shipping: Priority Mail small flat rate box unless combined with other purchases.  Click > here < for shipping rates. Use back button to return to this page.

Making multiple purchases? Click on the "combine shipping" button in the shopping cart. We'll send an invoice with combined shipping. A link in that invoice will bring you back to checkout, no hassle.