felsite

American  

[fel-sahyt] / ˈfɛl saɪt /

noun

1. a dense, fine-grained, igneous rock consisting typically of feldspar and quartz, both of which may appear as phenocrysts.

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felsite British  

/ ˈfɛlsaɪt /

noun

1. any fine-grained igneous rock consisting essentially of quartz and feldspar

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felsite Scientific  

/ fĕl′sīt′ /

1. A fine-grained, light-colored igneous rock, consisting mainly of feldspar and quartz.

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Other Word Forms

• felsitic
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of felsite

First recorded in 1785–95; fels(par) + -ite ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

felsite

The designs were rudely pecked on the moderately smooth felsite cliffs on a nearly perpendicular wall in the foot-hills, about forty feet above the bed of the arroyo, or gulch.

From Unknown Mexico, Volume 1 (of 2) A Record of Five Years' Exploration Among the Tribes of the Western Sierra Madre; In the Tierra Caliente of Tepic and Jalisco; and Among the Tarascos of Michoacan by Carl Lumholtz

It is worthy of note that the dykes and sheets of felsite are seldom pierced by the basalt dykes and are probably about the most recent of the intrusive rocks.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 6 "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of" by Various

These rocks approach towards true granites in one direction, and through quartz-porphyry and felsite to rhyolite in another—probably depending upon the conditions of cooling and consolidation.

From Volcanoes: Past and Present by Edward Hull

From this place to the mines the rocks were soft decomposing dolerites, with many harder bands of felsite, and, occasionally, plains composed of more recent trachytic lavas.

From The Naturalist in Nicaragua by Thomas Belt

The building material here is a close-grained felsite, and huge fragments of it have been used in the construction of the parapets.

From Unknown Mexico, Volume 1 (of 2) A Record of Five Years' Exploration Among the Tribes of the Western Sierra Madre; In the Tierra Caliente of Tepic and Jalisco; and Among the Tarascos of Michoacan by Carl Lumholtz

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