Optical and electron microscope investigation of temperature-dependent microstructures in anorthoclase

Optical and transmission electron microscopy has been used to study the cross-hatched microstructure (associated with the intersection of albite and pericline twin lamellae) that is characteristic of b*c* sections of anorthoclase. With the aid of a specimen-heating stage fitted to each microscope, the changes that occur in the microstructure on heating and subsequent cooling have been observed over the temperature range from ~20 to 950 °C. Observations of unheated crystals indicate that the cross-hatched microstructure consists of a chessboard pattern of triclinic areas (diagonal pairs of which are essentially albite-twin related) and of optically monoclinic areas that consist of domains of fine-scale albite-twin lamellae and domains of pericline-twin lamellae. The four-spot diffraction pattern characteristic of M twinning is observed only from volumes of specimen containing both types of domain. The complex twin interactions at the domain boundaries are described in detail. The changes in optical contras...