sericite

[ser-uh-sahyt]

noun

Mineralogy.

1. a fine-grained variety of muscovite produced by the alteration of feldspar.

Other Word Forms

• sericitic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of sericite¹

From the German word Sericit, dating back to 1850–55. See seric-, -ite ¹

Example Sentences

When this substance can be resolved by the microscope it proves to consist usually of zoisite or epidote, with garnet and albite, but mixed with it are also chlorite, amphibole, serpentine, prehnite, sericite and other minerals.

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Their hornblende in microscopic section is usually dark green, rarely brownish; their felspar may be clear and recrystallized, but more frequently is converted into a turbid aggregate of epidote, zoisite, quartz, sericite and albite.

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They are gray in the center, white in the surrounding zone of quartz sericite and green in the outer zone, as Lowell explains the theory.

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Weathering produces epidote, calcite, sericite and kaolin.

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Their olivine tends to become serpentinized; their augite changes to chlorite and uralite; their felspars are clouded by formation of zeolites, calcite, sericite and epidote.

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