Breccia

Basalt breccia in the Canary Islands; green groundmass is composed of epidote
Megabreccia (left) at Titus Canyon Narrows, Death Valley National Park, California
Tertiary breccia at Resting Springs Pass, Mojave Desert, California
Unusual breccia cemented by azurite and malachite, Morenci Mine, Arizona

Breccia (/ˈbrɛtʃiə, ˈbrɛʃ-/) is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.

The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble".[1] A breccia may have a variety of different origins, as indicated by the named types including sedimentary breccia, fault or tectonic breccia, igneous breccia, impact breccia, and hydrothermal breccia.

A megabreccia is a breccia composed of very large rock fragments, sometimes kilometers across, which can be formed by landslides,[2] impact events,[3] or caldera collapse.[4]

  1. ^ Allaby, Michael, ed. (2013). "Breccia". A dictionary of geology and earth sciences (Fourth ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199653065.
  2. ^ Biek, Robert F. (May 2013). "The Early Miocene Markagunt Megabreccia: Utah's largest catastrophic landsline". Utah Geological Survey Notes. 45 (2). Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  3. ^ McEwen, A. S.; Tornabene, L.; Grant, J.; Wray, J.; Mustard, J. (2008). "Noachian Megabreccia on Mars". American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting. 2008: P43D–03. Bibcode:2008AGUFM.P43D..03M. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  4. ^ Goff, Fraser; Gardner, Jamie N.; Reneau, Steven L.; Kelley, Shari A.; Kempter, Kirt A.; Lawrence, John R. (2011). "Geologic map of the Valles caldera, Jemez Mountains, New Mexico". New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Map Series. 79. Bibcode:2011AGUFM.V13C2606G. Retrieved 18 May 2020.