2 March 2014

A chip off the ol’ charnockite

Posted by Callan Bentley

We visited the Philip Carter Winery this weekend with family. Baxter and I were pleased to see outcrops of charnockite scattered over the property (located in the middle of the Blue Ridge geologic province).

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As any 18-month-old will tell you, charnockite is a pyroxene-bearing granitoid. It’s a distinctive and common rock type in Virginia’s Proterozoic basement complex. Here’s a close-up:

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The dark green is pyroxene. The white is plagioclase feldspar. The kid shows signs of interest in rocks.