A dark, medium-grained igneous rock, typically with ophitic texture, containing plagioclase, pyroxene, and olivine. It typically occurs in dikes and sills. Also called diabase.
More example sentences
- These supracrustal rocks are intruded by dolerite dykes that have been deformed and metamorphosed together with the country rock.
- We reached Fault Bluff, a dark angular mountain with faulted dolerite rock, around 10: 00 P.M. that night.
- Neither had iron tools and instead used such hard stones as flint, jade, dolerite, basalt, and serpentine to make axes, knives, and chisels.
mid 19th century: from French dolérite, from Greek doleros 'deceptive' (because it is difficult to distinguish from diorite).
Definition of dolerite in:
- The British & World English dictionary