Texture of dunite

Dunite was named by the German geologist, Ferdinand von Hochstetter in 1859 after Dun Mountain near Nelson, New Zealand. Dun Mountain was given its name because of the dun colour of the underlying ultramafic rocks.

Dunite uses

Dunite uses

Dunite composition

Where is dunite found

Is dunite intrusive or extrusive

Dunite formula

This color results from surface weathering that oxidizes the iron in olivine in temperate climates (weathering in tropical climates creates a deep red soil).

A dunite is an ultrabasic igneous rock dominated by essential olivine (>90% volume), often with accessory clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, spinel, ilmenite, and magnetite.

Dunite is usually coarse- to medium grained and is a peridotite. Dunite forms either as a cumulate within layered intrusions or as a residue after extraction of partial melt from a pre-existing ultrabasic rock in the mantle.

Dunite cumulates and mantle rocks are found as xenoliths in a wide range of mantle derived magmas.
Dunite and other peridotite rocks are considered the major constituents of the Earth's mantle above a depth of about 400 kilometers.

Dunite is rarely found within continental rocks, but where it is found, it

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