diabase
Americannoun
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a fine-grained gabbro occurring as minor intrusions.
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British. a dark igneous rock consisting essentially of augite and feldspar; an altered dolerite.
noun
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an altered dolerite
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another name for dolerite
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A dark-gray to black, medium-grained igneous rock consisting mainly of labradorite and pyroxene. Diabase is compositionally similar to andesite, but has coarser grains. It is commonly found in sills and dikes.
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Also called dolerite
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of diabase
1810–20; < French, equivalent to dia- (error for di- two) + base base 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It is traversed in places by dikes and sills of diabase or dolerite, while bosses of more or less altered gabbro rise through it.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 6 "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad" by Various
In the cores of the arches of Arenig cherts there are diabase lavas, tuffs and agglomerates which are typically represented on Bail Hill E. of Kirkconnel.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 8 "Dubner" to "Dyeing" by Various
The best-known locality is Fronolen near Tremadoc in North Wales, where crystals of the thin tabular habit occur with crystallized quartz, albite and anatase on the walls of crevices in diabase.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" by Various
At Gympie, the auriferous area is confined to veins traversing a crystalline diorite, or within a certain limit of its boundary, marked by the presence of fossiliferous diabase tufas.
From Early Days in North Queensland by Edward Palmer
These are caused either by old intrusions of diabase and gabbro which have undergone modifications, or by later ones of dolerite.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 6 "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
