Cryptocrystalline is a rock texture which is so finely crystalline, that is, made up of such minute crystals that its crystalline nature is only vaguely revealed even microscopically in thin section by transmitted polarized light. Among the sedimentary rocks, chert and flint are cryptocrystalline. Also a form of diamond, known as carbonado, is cryptocyrstalline. Volcanic rocks, especially of the acidic type such as felsites and rhyolites, may have a cryptocrystalline matrix as distinguished from pure obsidian (acidic) or tachylyte (basic), which are natural rock glasses.

Crystals | Petrology | Lithics