Research / Geoscience / Language

Harzburgite

Peridotite dominated by olivine and orthopyroxene, with little clinopyroxene.

Language and route: German locality-derived geological rock name. German locality-derived geological rock name

Literal gloss: rock of Harzburg

The name and its history

Karl Heinrich Rosenbusch (1887), supported by historical geological account · 1887, secondary historical source

What does the word literally mean?: Literal naming sense: rock of Harzburg. Immediate language/formation: German locality-derived geological rock name. Place-name rather than an intended reference to hardness or pyroxene cleavage.
What did the original author mean?: The name was applied to particular peridotitic rocks of the Radautal near Bad Harzburg in the Harz Mountains.
Why was the name needed?: Petrographers needed to discriminate different ultramafic olivine–pyroxene assemblages.
What evidence supported the original concept?: German plutonic-rock observations and relative abundances of olivine and orthopyroxene.
How has geology changed the concept?: Modern classification describes this assemblage globally, and it is often interpreted as a depleted mantle residue rather than as a unique Harz rock.

The name was applied to particular peridotitic rocks of the Radautal near Bad Harzburg in the Harz Mountains.

Petrographers needed to discriminate different ultramafic olivine–pyroxene assemblages.

German plutonic-rock observations and relative abundances of olivine and orthopyroxene.

Modern classification describes this assemblage globally, and it is often interpreted as a depleted mantle residue rather than as a unique Harz rock.

Geological Society, Harz Mountains regional petrology — Harzburg Radautal type locality; Rosenbusch 1887 naming
BGS, Rock Classification Scheme — Modern descriptive rock-naming principles and definitions
USGS, Lithologic classification of geologic map units — Modal definitions and named plutonic-rock categories
IUGS / Le Maitre et al. (2002), Igneous Rocks: A Classification and Glossary of Terms, ch. 3 — Authoritative IUGS rock-name history and bibliographic attributions