metasomatismn.

1886 T. S. Hunt Mineral Physiol. & Physiogr. 83 Constituting what has been appropriately designated metasomatism.

1906 Econ. Geol. 1 839 As a general term synonymous with ‘metasomatism’, ‘replacement’ is preferable to ‘substitution’.

1933 W. Lindgren Mineral Deposits (ed. 4) ix. 91 The word metasomatism, meaning a change of body, first used by C. Naumann to designate some kinds of pseudomorphism, is now applied to the process of practically simultaneous capillary solution and deposition by which a new mineral of partly or wholly differing chemical composition may grow in the body of an old mineral or mineral aggregate.

1947 Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. 102 408 The well-known example of magnesia metasomatism that has affected the leptites of the contact aureole surrounding the oligoclase-granite of Orijärvi.

1954 J. F. Kirkaldy Gen. Princ. Geol. xiii. 192 Secondary dolomitization..and secondary silification..are other examples of metasomatism.

1980 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 297 273 There is clear evidence of the occurrence of infiltration metasomatism (involving K, Ti, and other incompatible elements) in some mantle xenoliths before their incorporation in the kimberlite.

1988 Nature 27 Oct. 769/1 Magma heat death is thought to be an important mechanism responsible for mantle metasomatism.

1996 Guardian 31 Oct. ii. 22/4 At the same time, the frozen carbon dioxide is vapourised and forced at high pressure and temperature, conditions which are ideal for the creation of carbonates in a process known as impact metasomatism.