Dynamic and contact metamorphism. Beneath the surface rocks are not only cemented, but may be deformed or mashed by dynamic movements caused by great earth stresses; the rocks may undergo rock flowage. The result is often a remarkable transformation of the character of the rocks, making it difficult to recognize their original nature. Also, igneous intrusions may crowd and mash the adjacent rocks, at the same time changing them by heat and contributions of new materials. This process may be called contact metamorphism, but in so far as it results in mashing of the rocks it is closely allied to dynamic metamorphism. The former term is also applied to less profound changes in connection with igneous intrusions, which result merely in cementation without mashing.
Dynamic and contact metamorphism may in some cases produce rocks identical in appearance with those produced by ordinary processes of cementation and recrystallization without movement. For instance, it is difficult to tell how much movement there has been in the production of a marble, because both kinds of processes seem to produce much the same result. Commonly, however, the effect of dynamic metamorphism is to produce a parallel arrangement of mineral particles and to segregate the mineral particles of like kind into bands, giving a foliated or schistose or gneissic structure, and the rocks then become known as slates, schists, or gneisses. Commonly they possess a capacity to part along parallel surfaces, called cleavage. The development of the schistose or gneissic structure is accompanied by the recrystallization of the rock materials, producing new minerals of a platy or columnar type adapted to this parallel arrangement. Even the composition of the rock may be substantially changed, though this is perhaps not the most common case. Whereas by weathering the rock is loosened up and disintegrated, substances like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water are abundantly added, and light minerals of simple composition tend to develop,—by dynamic metamorphism on the other hand, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water are usually expelled, the minerals are combined to make heavier and more complex minerals, pore space is eliminated, and altogether the rock becomes much more dense and crystalline. While segregation of materials is characteristic of the surficial products of weathering, the opposite tendency, of mixing and aggregation, is the rule under dynamic metamorphism, notwithstanding the minor segregation above noted.
Dynamic metamorphism is for the most part unfavorable to the development of mineral products. Ore bodies brought into a zone where these processes are active may be profoundly modified, but not ordinarily enriched. One of the exceptions to this general rule is the development of the cleavage of a slate, which enables it to be readily split and thereby gives it value. Contact metamorphism, on the other hand, may develop valuable mineral deposits (see pp. 20, 45-46).
THE METAMORPHIC CYCLE AS AN AID IN STUDYING MINERAL DEPOSITS
All of the chemical, mineralogical, and textural changes in rocks above described may be collectively referred to as metamorphism. The phase of metamorphism dealing with surficial weathering, similar changes below the surface, and the formation of sediments, is called katamorphism or destructive change. The phase of metamorphism dealing with the constructive changes in rocks, due to cementation, dynamic movements, and igneous influences, is called anamorphism. Some geologists confine the term metamorphism to the changes involved in contact and dynamic metamorphism, and call the resulting products metamorphic rocks.
The zone in which katamorphism is most active, usually near the surface, is called the zone of katamorphism. The deeper zone in which anamorphism is preponderant is called the zone of anamorphism. There are no definite limits of depth to these zones. A given rock may be undergoing katamorphism while rocks on either side at the same depth are suffering anamorphism.
By katamorphism rocks break down to produce the surficial rocks, and by anamorphism the surficial rocks are again consolidated and altered to produce highly crystalline rocks, which are not dissimilar in many of their characteristics to the igneous rocks from which all rocks trace their ultimate origin. In other words, anamorphism tends toward the reproduction of igneous rocks, though it seldom fully accomplishes this result. These two main groups of changes together constitute the metamorphic cycle. Some rocks go through all phases of the cycle, but others may pass directly from one phase to an advanced phase without going through the intermediate stages. For instance, an igneous rock may become a schist without going through the intermediate stage of sedimentation.
Rocks are not permanent in their condition, but at practically all times and places are undergoing some kind of metamorphism which tends to adapt them to their environment. The conception of rocks as representing phases or stages in a progressive series of changes called the metamorphic cycle aids greatly in correlating and holding in mind many details of rock nature and origin, and brings into some sort of perspective the conditions which have produced rocks. A schistose sediment comes to be regarded as an end product of a long series of alterations, beginning with igneous rocks and passing through the stages of weathering, sedimentation, cementation, etc., each of which stages has been responsible for certain mineralogical, chemical, and textural features now characterizing the rock. The alternation of constructive and destructive changes of the metamorphic cycle, and the repetitions of the cycle itself, periodically work over the earth materials into new forms. Usually the cycles are not complete, in the sense that they seldom bring the rock back to exactly the same condition from which it started. More sediments are formed than are changed to schists and gneisses, and more schists and gneisses are formed than are changed back to igneous rocks. Salts in the ocean continuously accumulate. The net result of the metamorphic cycle, is, therefore, the accumulation of materials of the same kinds. Incidental to these accumulations is the segregation of commercial mineral products.
The metamorphic cycle becomes a logical and convenient geologic basis for correlating, interpreting, and classifying mineral products. Because of the great variety of materials and conditions represented in mineral deposits, prodigious efforts are required to remember them as independent entities; but as incidents or stages in the well-known progress of the metamorphic cycle, their essential characteristics may be easily remembered and kept in some perspective.
Ores of certain metals, such as iron, occur in almost every phase of the metamorphic cycle,—as igneous after-effects, as weathered products, as sediments, and as schists. The ores of each of these several phases have group characteristics which serve to distinguish them in important particulars from ores belonging to other phases of the cycle. Having established the position of any particular ore in the metamorphic cycle, a number of safe inferences are possible as to mineralogical composition, shape, extent, and other conditions, knowledge of which is necessary for an estimate of commercial possibilities.