hälleflinta

hälleflinta, (Swedish: “rock flint”), white, gray, yellow, greenish, or pink fine-grained rock that consists of quartz intimately mixed with feldspar. It is very finely crystalline, resembling the matrix of many silica-rich (acid) igneous rocks. Many examples are banded or striated; others contain larger crystals of quartz in a fine-grained matrix. Mica, iron oxides, apatite, zircon, epidote, and hornblende may be present in small amounts.

Hälleflinta is essentially metamorphic (altered by heat and pressure) in origin and occurs with gneiss, schist, and granulite, especially in the Scandinavian Peninsula, where it is regarded as being very characteristic of certain rock layers. Of its original nature there is some doubt, but its chemical composition and the occasional presence of larger crystals indicate that it has affinities to the fine-grained, acid intrusive rocks. Rocks very similar to the typical Swedish hälleflintas occur in the Tirol, the Galicia region of Poland and Ukraine, and the eastern Bohemia region of the Czech Republic.