RUTILE

 Origin
Origin
Rutile occurs in two principal environments. In the high-pressure environment of the
deep mantle, the mineral is expressed as a primary titanium mineral in eclogites, rocks
generally consisting of mixtures of clinopyroxene and garnet, +/- orthopyroxene, olivine,
and chromium mica (fuchsite). If those rocks gradually rise in the crust through tectonic
activity, they may become partially hydrated and erupt as mafic igneous and volcanic
rocks, also still containing rutile. In these environments, rutile is an accessory mineral.

The other modality of occurrence is when these eclogites and mafic rocks are eroded at
the surface, particularly in the Pacific Ring of Fire, where converging continental and
oceanic plates are uplifting continental masses and exposing mafic rocks. The eroded
minerals selectively accumulate as beach sands along shorelines, where wave action
continually sorts and reconcentrates them to the point of economic viability. In these
environments, rutile is a detrital mineral.

In some igneous rocks, weathering of the matrix will promote the destruction of ilmenite,
which alters irreversibly to leucoxene, a granular aggregate of rutile or anatase.
Classically, leucoxene is described as ranging in color from yellow to brown, but it also
occurs in altered basalts as extensive white patches resembling guano.

Even some felsic magmatic rocks - like some granites or pegmatites - could contain
rutile.
Rutile is also present in some metamorphic rocks, especially gneisses, schists, and
amphibolites. Some of these rocks contain quartz lenses with rutile crystals, sometimes
weighing up to several kilograms. Rutile can be also dispersed within the rock in the
form of tiny crystals.

High-quality crystals of gemmy red rutile or yellow sagenite come from Alpine-type veins.
Rutile can be present in the form of regular growths of yellow or brown-yellow needles of
sagenite. Gemmy red rutile grows inside the pockets and sometimes forms epistatic
growths with the Alpine hematite variety - iron rose.