The Distinction between Chlorophaeite and Palagonite

Abstract

In a recent paper, Dr. L. L. Fermor (12) discusses the composition of chlorophaeite and palagonite and the employment of these terms, with special reference to the present writer's view of this subject, reached principally through a study of the palagonitetuffs of Iceland (11). In an earlier extended study of Indian traps Dr. Fermor had concluded that the orange and brown chlorophaeite-like bodies, often called “palagonite” by the Indian Survey petrographers, are identical with chlorophaeite, and that the similar associated greenish substance, also embraced in the term “palagonite” by these workers, is perhaps, when anisotropic, the chlorite delessite (10, p. 133). One inference from these observations is that palagonite comprises chlorophaeite and the associated green substance; another is that the application of palagonite to these bodies was primarily a misnomer.