Granofels
“High-grade without the foliation”
Granofels is a high-grade metamorphic rock with a granular, non-foliated texture — meaning it lacks the layered or banded appearance typical of most metamorphic rocks. It forms under intense heat and pressure but from parent rocks whose mineral composition doesn't produce platy or elongated crystals that create foliation.
quartz, feldspar, garnet, pyroxene, hornblende (varies with composition)
Adirondack Mountains (New York, USA), Limpopo Belt (Southern Africa), Western Gneiss Region (Norway), Sri Lanka
6-7
The term 'granofels' was introduced in the 1970s to fill a gap in metamorphic rock naming — before that, geologists struggled to classify high-grade rocks that simply refused to be foliated.
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Why was the term 'granofels' created for metamorphic rock classification?
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