Pegmatites of the Van Horn Mountains, Texas

Reprinted from Economic Geology, v. 46, no. 2, 1951.Zoned and unzoned perthite-quartz-plagioclase-muscovite pegmatites in the form of tabular bodies, irregular bodies with tabular branches, irregular masses, elongate lenses, lit-par-lit zones, and small augen and stringers are distributed throughout the Precambrian metasedimentary rocks of the Mica Mine area, Van Horn Mountains, Texas. Zoned bodies have a core of erthite and quartz and a plagioclase-quartz-perthite-muscovite wall zone. The pegmatites contain numerous schist inclusions, and some show evidence of contamination by biotite schist and amphibolite.