Box 2.2. How to distinguish olivine from augite in thin section Olivine and augite are two minerals of similar relief and (superficially) similar interference colour that may be confused by the inexperienced observer. Below are some key features to look for in distinguishing between the two, those emphasized by italics being the most diagnostic. olivine in thin section augite in thin section Body colour in Colourless in PPL. (Fe-rich varieties Usually a pale beige or grey colour in PPL thin section are pale yellow). (Plates 2.3 and 2.5); titanian augite has a (see Plate 4.1) pleochroic lilac tinge. Fracture or Irregular curved fractures, often Either one cleavage (in sections parallel to crystal cleavage emphasized by incipient alteration elongation) or two perpendicular cleavages (in (see Plate 2.4). sections perpendicular to elongation). Birefringence 0,035-0052 up to third-order 0.018-0.033 up to second-order colours. colours. Extinction angle Euhedral olivine‘ shows straight Oblique extinction relative to cleavage. ‘extinction relative to prism faces. Alteration Susceptible to alteration to: More resistant. May undergo alteration to © red-brown iddingsite, or uuralite. serpentine (often colourless), or green bowlingite. Relics of curved internal cracks ~ picked out by alteration products = often identify altered olivine. “The lack of cleavage olivine makes discrimination by extinction angle impractical for anhedral crystals. Box 2.5 Petrographic differences between tholeiitic and alkali basalts Modal nepheline is rarely if ever observed in an alkali basalt under the microscope, but there are other petrographic clues that help to distinguish between alkali and tholeiitic basalts when no chemi- cal analysis is available. In alkali basalts: ‘© augite crystals tend to have a faint lilac/mauve body colour owing to enrichment in titanium; such titanian augites (Box 2.1) often show slight pleochroism and more pronounced zoning than augites in tholeiitic basalts; ‘© augite usually appears as a phenocryst phase before plagioclase docs: the usual order is then augite then (in more evolved lavas) plagioclase. Tn subalkali basalts: + plagioclase usually appears as a phenocryst phase before augite (Plate 2.2). The usual order is olivine then plagioclase then (in more evolved lavas) augite. + the occurrence of low-Ca pyroxene, either monoclinic pigeonite or orthorhombic enstatite (Box 2.1); low-Ca pyroxene may occur as phenocrysts, as groundmass crystals, and/or as overgrowths on olivine phenocrysts. Traces of quartz may very occasionally be found in the groundmass of a tholeiitic basalt (leading to the term quartz tholeiite), crystallized from the most evolved dregs of interstitial melt. Macdonald and Katsura (1964) proposed that olivine in the groundmass served to discriminate alkali basalt, bur more recent work shows that it can be found in the groundmass of nearly any Hawaiian basalt (M.O. Garcia, pers. comm.). When mineral analyses are available, tholeiitic and alkali mafic rocks can be seen to differ also in the composition of high-Ca pyroxene present, as illustrated in Fig. 4.2.