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Pseudomorphs of pyrrhotine after pyrite in the Ballachulish slates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Henrich Neumann
Henrich Neumann*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Leeds
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Extract

The Ballachulish slates, exposed to the north and south of Loch Leven in Argyllshire, contain, in most places, cubes of pyrite up to half an inch in diameter. During a visit to the area in the spring of 1949 the writer's attention was attracted by the dark colour of the 'pyrite' cubes in the North Ballaehulish slate quarry a little more than a mile east of Onich. On examination these proved to consist of a mass of haphazardly orientated crystals of pyrrhotine with irregular outlines. Slates collected from the main working quarry on the south shore of Loch Leven, on the other hand, contain cubes which are single crystals of unaltered pyrite.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 29 , Issue 210 , September 1950 , pp. 234 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1950

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References

1 For a further description of the Ballachulish slates see: Memoir of the Geological Survey, Scotland, no. 53, The Geology of Ben Ncvis and Glen Coe (1916).

2 During the field-work I was accompanied by O. v. Knorring, ill. lic., to whom thanks are due for help and discussions of the problems dealt with in this paper.

3 It was originally thought that the existence of pyrrhotine might be dependent on the varying degree of regional metamorphism of the slates, and that the distribution of pyrite and pyrrhotine might give further clues to the tectonical architecture of the area. There is no evidence whatever for such an assumption. I am indebted to Professor W. Q. Kennedy for numerous discussions of the geology of the surroundings of Loch Leven, and for the keen interest he has taken in these investigations.

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1 The determinations were done by optical spectrographieal methods, using the iron in pyrite and pyrrhotine as comparison subetance. The intensities of the following lines were compared: Co 3453-5-Fe 3451-9 JL.; Ni 3050-8-Fe 3053.4 A. The spectrographieal work was done by L. Lurid, mag. scient., and I offer my sincere thanks for his help and assistance.