Meanings
plural sideromelanes
- geographyA basaltic glass often found in palagonite tuff.
In younger deposits, irregular patches of black fresh glassy sideromelane occur as “islands" coated by brownish palagonite envelopes of varying thickness.
2012, Richard V. Fisher, Pyroclastic Rocks2 more examples
The Korite is a hydrous labradorite; it is in dull brown grains, and is associated with Sideromelane, which has the same composition excepting the absence of water.
1854, James Dwight Dana, A system of mineralogy, comprising the most recent discoveriesThe crystallization sequences observed in the one-atmosphere melting experiments are summarized in Table 16, where they are compared with the crystallization sequence deduced from petrographic examination of nearly holocrystalline rocks and of naturally occurring materials (which contain 80-95% glass), such as near-vent sideromelanes and dike selvedges.
1978, Rosalind Tuthill Helz, The petrogenesis of the Ice Harbor member, Columbia Plateau, Washington
Origin
- GermanSideromelane
- Englishsideromelane
Borrowed from German Sideromelane, coined by Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen in 1853.
More words from German
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
sideromelane. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sideromelane
“sideromelane.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sideromelane. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sideromelane,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sideromelane.
Source: sideromelane on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.