Bible Encyclopedias
Batholite

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…

Enter query below:

or

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Prev Entry
Bathgate

Next Entry
Bathonian Series

Resource Toolbox

Print Article

(from Gr. 1 6001n, deep, and Xt06, a stone), in geology, a term given to certain intrusive rock masses. Especially in districts which are composed principally of rocks belonging to the older geological systems extensive areas of granite frequently occur. By their relations to the strata around them, it is clear that these granites have been forced into their present positions in a liquid state, and under great pressure. The bedding planes of stratified rocks are wedged apart and tongues of granite have been injected into them, while cracks have been opened up and filled with intrusions in the shape of igneous veins. Great masses of the strata which the granite has invaded are often floated off, and are found lying in the heart of the granite much altered by the heat to which they have been exposed, and traversed by the igneous rock in ramifying threads. Such granite intrusions are generally known as bosses from their rounded surfaces, and the frequency with which they form flattish dome-shaped hills, rising above the older rocks surrounding them. At one time many geologists held that in certain situations the granite had arisen from the complete fusion and transformation of the stratified rocks over a limited area of intense metamorphism. The chemical no less than the structural relations of the two sets of rocks, however, preclude the acceptance of this hypothesis. Obviously the granite is an intruder which has welled up from below, and has cooled gradually, and solidified in its present situation.

Regarding the mechanism of this process there are two theories which hold the field, each having a large number of supporters. One school considers that they are mostly "batholites" or conical masses rising from great depths and eating up the strata which lie above and around them. The frequency of inclusions of the surrounding rocks, their rounded shapes indicating that they have been partly dissolved by the igneous magma, the intense alteration which they have undergone pointing to a state approaching actual fusion, the extensive changes induced in the rocks which adjoin the granite, the abundance of veins, and the unusual modifications of the granite which occur where it comes in contact with the adjacent strata, are adduced as evidence that there has been absorption and digestion of the country rock by the intrusive mass. These views are in favour especially in France; and instances are cited in which as the margins of the granite are approached diorites and other rocks make their appearance, which are ascribed to the effect which admixture with dissolved sedimentary material has had on the composition of the granite magma; at the same time the schists have been permeated with felspar from the igneous rocks, and are said to have been felspathized.

The opponents of this theory hold these granitic masses to be "laccolites", (Gr. Vuocos, a cistern), or great cake-shaped injections of molten rock, which have been pressed from below into planes of weakness in the upper portions of the earth's crust, taking the lines of least resistance, and owing their shape to the varying flexibility of the strata they penetrated. The modifications of the granite are ascribed to magmatic segregation (chemical and physical processes which occasioned diffusion of certain components towards the cooling surfaces). Absorption of country rock is held to be unimportant in amount, and insufficient to account for the great spaces in the schists which are occupied by the granite. Those who support this theory leave the question of the ultimate source of the granite unanswered, but consider that it is of deep-seated origin, and the bosses which now appear at the surface are only comparatively superficial manifestations.

The bulk of the evidence is in favour of the laccolitic theory; in fact it has been clearly demonstrated in many important cases. Still it is equally clear that many granites are not merely passive injections, but have assimilated much foreign rock. Possibly much depends on the chemical composition of the respective masses, and on the depths and temperatures at which the intrusion took place. Increase of pressure and of temperature, which we know to take place at great depths, would stimulate resorption of sedimentary material, and by retarding cooling would allow time for dissolved foreign substances to diffuse widely through the magma. (J. S. F.)