Talk:Phenocryst

Megacrysts
Is there any difference between a megacryst and a phenocryst? If not, then that stub ought to be a redirect here. —S MALL JIM   13:41, 17 December 2016 (UTC)


 * A good question. This paper does distinguish between xenocrysts, megacrysts and phenocrysts, but after reading it I'm no clearer on the distinction. Mikenorton (talk) 12:56, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I see what you mean. Xenocryst is a redirect to, and is defined in xenolith as "an individual foreign crystal included within an igneous body". And I've just found https://www.accessscience.com/content/506500 which explains the difference between pheno- and mega- crysts (and porphyroblasts (which article also introduces the porphyroclast)) – simple! Anyway, the questions now are: 1. Can that Access Science definition be trusted? If so, phenocryst needs a bit of a rewrite; and 2. Do we need Megacryst as a separate article, or would it be best explained in Phenocryst? —S MALL  JIM   16:07, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I think that the reference is fine. It seems reasonable to keep Megacryst separate, almost like a disambiguation page for phenocryst, porphyroblast and xenocryst. I've added the above reference to the megacryst article as a start to this structure. Klbrain (talk) 07:27, 20 May 2018 (UTC)