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Both the resultant crystalline mosaics and/or polymorphs are chemically identical—with a few minor exceptions due to certain relatively minute chemical alterations that occur during the reaction processes—to the minerals from which the aggraded crystals developed. [4] One common form of aggrading neomorphism is called porphyroid neomorphism.
The minerals present in the rock often do not reflect conditions of chemical equilibrium, and the textures produced by dynamic metamorphism are more significant than the mineral makeup. [ 65 ] There are three deformation mechanisms by which rock is mechanically deformed.
Silica pseudomorph after gypsum crystals and silicified serpulid polychaete tubes Pseudomorph of goethite after pyrite. In mineralogy, a pseudomorph is a mineral or mineral compound that appears in an atypical form (crystal system), resulting from a substitution process in which the appearance and dimensions remain constant, but the original mineral is replaced by another due to alteration, or ...
Metamorphic rocks are formed when existing rock is transformed physically or chemically at elevated temperature, without actually melting to any great degree. The importance of heating in the formation of metamorphic rock was first noted by the pioneering Scottish naturalist, James Hutton, who is often described as the father of modern geology ...
Further, because metasomatism is a mass transfer process, it is not restricted to the rocks which are changed by addition of chemical elements and minerals or hydrous compounds. In all cases, to produce a metasomatic rock some other rock is also metasomatised, if only by dehydration reactions with minimal chemical change.
Dislocation creep is a non-linear (plastic) deformation mechanism in which vacancies in the crystal glide and climb past obstruction sites within the crystal lattice. [1] These migrations within the crystal lattice can occur in one or more directions and are triggered by the effects of increased differential stress.
These rocks are fine-grained and sometimes cool so rapidly that no crystals can form and result in a natural glass, such as obsidian, however the most common fine-grained rock would be known as basalt. Any of the three main types of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks) can melt into magma and cool into igneous rocks. [2]
During this process, the physical structure of the minerals is altered while the composition remains unchanged. [1] [2] This is in contrast to metasomatism, which is the chemical alteration of a rock by hydrothermal and other fluids. Solid-state recrystallization can be illustrated by observing how snow recrystallizes to ice.