Salale Mountains

The cone of Salale rises to about 800 m and has a shallow crater. Rocks collected on the northeastern flanks proved to be melanephelinite (Le Bas and Mohr, 1968). They contain phenocrysts of titanaugite and microphenocrysts of apatite and an opaque phase set in a groundmass of titanaugite and aegirine augite, opaques, chlorite and zeolite, which were thought to be after nepheline. Amygdales are filled with natrolite, analcime and calcite. Agglomerates near the melanephelinites are carbonated and cut by calcite veins 10-50 cm in thickness and up to 2 m in length, but on the basis of texture and chemistry these are not considered to be carbonatites.