Asbestification

Reaction between the silica thus released and the serpentinite with which it came in contact was thought to have caused asbestification.[…]On the Makinyambu property in particular, asbestification of the centre has been restricted to a few well-defined blocks where dynamic action was probably greatest rather than being uniformly operative throughout the mass.[…]The other main form of alteration, asbestification, is considered as specifically a result of the operation of shearing stress under the same general conditions.[…]Although the structure is complicated by a series of block-faults, there seems little possibility here that serpentinization and asbestification resulted from ground-water action.

At the same time the nature of the distribution of asbestos content in the zones of asbestification has been studied; mean statistical parameters have been obtained, and the nature of changes of these parameters with variation of the sampled population has been investigated.

The degree of asbestification is also dissimilar in micaceous fringes. In the fringe at the pegmatite contact the amphibole has been almost totally asbestified, but near offshoots the degree of its asbestification falls to 40 or 30%.[…]I. In the process of asbestifiation there is a considerable loss of ferrous iron and magnesium cations.