IGNEOUS

INTRUSIONS

Ardnamurchan, W. Scotland

IGNEOUS INTRUSIONS
Magma moves through joints, fractures and
between the crystals of the solid rock of the
crust and mantle.
When it reaches its freezing temperature, it
crystallises.
Dykes, sills and plutons are igneous bodies
that have cooled from magma beneath the
surface.
If the magma crystallises at depths of
20/30km it is called a plutonic rock and will
have large crystals.

CHILLED AND BAKED

MARGINS

When intrusions cool they will crystallise

fastest where they are in contact with the
colder country rock.
Crystals on the edge of the intrusion will be
smaller than those in the centre.
The outside edge with the smallest crystals
is called the CHILLED MARGIN.
The country rock will be heated by the
magma next to it. The country rock will be
baked by the heat and may recrystallise.
This is called the BAKED MARGIN.

INTRUSIONS
Intrusions crystallise within the country rock, which
can be igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic.
The magma will follow a route which is at the least
pressure, usually along fractures or cracks.
If a sedimentary country rock has bedding planes
it is easy to see whether an intrusion of magma
has followed the bedding planes or cut across
them.
If magma cuts across bedding planes it is called a
DISCORDANT intrusion.
If magma follows bedding planes it is called a
CONCORDANT intrusion.

Dykes are
sheets of
igneous
rocks which
cut across
bedding
planes or
igneous or
metamorphi
c foliation.
Are they
discordant
or
concordant?

DISCORDANT

Lava flows

This dyke in Tenerife cuts

across the country rocks
which are basalt lava flows.

Chilled margin has small crystals which have

weathered fast.

Gently
dipping
Jurassic beds

Dolerite dyke
Baked margin of sandstone is
hard because it has

Ardnamurchan, N.
W. Scotland

Dyke in S.
Arran cutting
through red
sandstone.
Chilled
margin in
dyke,
probably
basalt.
Baked margin
in sandstones

0.75
m

Dolerite dyke

Some dykes weather faster than the

country rock around.

Red
sandstone
baked
margin
dolerite
Corrie Shore, Arran

Describe the
baked
margin and
say how it
has been
altered by
the intrusion
of the

Field sketch to show dyke on Corrie shore,

Arran
Now add the title Recrystallised,
1.22m
Baked
margin
Basalt

Chilled
margin

More resistant
dolerite

hard
metaquarzite

Country
rock is red
sandstone
Closely spaced
cooling joints

This
dyke
cuts
across a
previou
s
intrusio
n of
gabbro.

Rhum,
N.W.
Scotlan

0.5m

Rhum dyke

Gabbro

Dolerite
dyke

Dyke at
Dyke at Blackwaterfoot Beach,
Blackwaterfoot
The Arran
Beach, Arran
country
rock is red
sandstone
which is
usually
buried
under the
sand.

Cooling
joints

2.5m

Dolerite
in the
centre of
the dyke

Series of silicic dykes cutting

discordantly across a
metamorphosed sandstone.
CA
B

In what order were the dykes

edges to the
centre. As
they cool
they
contract
producing
cooling
joints.
These
usually run
in two
directions at
90o parallel
to the
cooling
surfaces.

Sills are igneous bodies which

lie parallel to bedding planes.
Edinburgh

Salisbury Crag dolerite sill

Sills

Bamburgh Castle, Northumbria,

stands on a sill of dolerite called
the Great Whin Sill

dolerite
Carboniferous
sandstone

Contact of
Great Whin
Sill with
sandstones
, below
Bamburgh
Castle
Slightly
recrystallised
bedding planes

dolerite

CHILLED
MARGIN

BAKED
MARGIN
Carboniferous
sandstones

Drumadoon Sill, Arran

Quartz feldspar
porphyry sill
with basalt
margins

Scree made
of fallen
columns

Columnar
jointing
40m

Red sandstones and

shales

Field sketch to show the Drumadoon NOW DRAW YOUR

Sill, Arran, showing the relationship OWN FIELD
SKETCH
of the sill with the country rock.

Basalt

Quartz feldspar
porphyry

40m

Basalt

Country rock
of red
sandstones

BEDDING PLANES
Scree of fallen
columns

PLUTONS
Plutons are large sheets of igneous rock, up to
5-10km thick, that cooled 20-30km below the
surface.
The rocks that form plutons are always coarsegrained because they cooled slowly. Plutons
are usually made of granite, diorite or gabbro.

Gabbro of the Cuillins,

Skye.

Cuillins, Skye
Cuillins

Gabbro pluton, cut by dolerite dykes, seen

outlined in the snow.

Batholiths are made of

many separate plutons.
The S.W. England granite
is a good example.

30c
m

Top of granite pluton at

Porthmeor, Cornwall

Granite with large

phenocrysts

Coarse crystals, with very large

Baked
phenocrysts in the granite
margin in
the local
slates.
Chilled margin of
fine crystals in
the granite
Igneous contact in Porthmeor Bay, Cornwall.

Plutons in N.W. Scotland

Gabbro
pluton in
Rhum

Gabbro in
Skye
Basalt lava flows
on Eigg and Muck

Gabbro pluton of Ardnamurchan

Peggys Cove lighthouse, on granite pluton,

Nova Scotia, Canada

Equigranular granite, Nova Scotia, Canada

Pegmatite vein, in Peggys Cove

granite

Large grey xenoliths in granite,

Ingonish, Nova Scotia

THE END

Arran granite pluton from

Kintyre