Origin of oolites and the oolitic texture in rocks
Introduction and historical Sketch The study of oolites and oolitic texture has no claim to novelty. This peculiar texture early attracted the attention of scientists, and the microscope was used to elucidate the minute structure of these rocks nearly two centuries before the petrographic microscope came to be recognized as a necessary adjunct of a petrographic laboratory. As early as 1664 Hooke described in his volume on “Micrography” 3 an oolite under the name of “Kettering-stone.” His description runs thus: “This stone which is brought from Kettering in Northamptonshire, and digg’d out of a quarry, as 1 am inform’d, has a grain altogether admirable, nor have I ever seen or heard of any other stone that has the like. It is made up of an innumerable company of small bodies, not all of the same cize or shape, but for the most part, not much differing from a globular from, nor . . .