Volcanic litharenite, Black Sand Beach, Big Island, Hawaii
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Black Sand Beach | Macroscopic view, line in |
Location | South shore of Big Island, Hawaii, Black Sand Beach |
Provenance | Volcanic sand of recent basaltic lava |
Depositional facies | replace this with text about the dep facies |
Composition | Dominantly light green volcanic glass, isotropic in polarized light. A few colourful clinopyroxen crystals (maybe olivine as well ?) and a few microlithic VRFs |
Texture | A coarse-grained, moderately to poorly sorted, extremely angular volcanic sand of recent basaltic lava. The extreme angularity and the preservation of many partial bubble outlines is unusual in sands but highly diagnostic in the interpretation in sandstone provenance. Medium to coarse sand (250 to 1250 μm) |
Petrographic thin section:
Description | Basaltic VRFs |
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Bright field | Dark field |
Sample number | heubeck0085 |
Collector | Christoph Heubeck, Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften, FU Berlin |
Date of sampling | 1991 |
Comments:
Along Hawaii's south coast, basaltic lava, up to 1100 deg C hot, is shock-cooled upon contact with the sea water. Glassy beads and highly porous basaltic "spatter" form which are quickly ground up into shards by shoreline surf and swash. The black beach becomes extremely hot under the morning sun.
See also 0097 volcanic litharenite, Chile
