Buck Creek ultramafic body, NC - chloritization in dunite

Click on the image to enlarge.           Photo © Daniel R. Snyder

Advanced stage of chloritization in dunite, Buck Creek ultramafic body, Blue Ridge Mountains, Clay County, western North Carolina. Pratt and Lewis (1905)* described the chloritization of the Buck Creek dunite thus: "In some cases the olivine alters extensively to chlorite, which penetrates the grains generally along cleavage cracks first, though frequently in diagonal directions, in long slender laths, sometimes passing uninterruptedly through two or three grains." XPL. Imaged area 1.3 mm x 2 mm.

Thanks to Dr. Brannon Andersen of Furman University for giving me detailed instructions on reaching this exposure.

*Joseph Hyde Pratt and Joseph Volney Lewis, Corundum and the Peridotites of North Carolina.