Partially melted basalts enclosing amygdales which have been completely melted formed at Scawt Hill adjacent to a Tertiary dolerite plug. Melting of the basalts commenced in a clay-rich mesostasis to produce a feldspathic liquid which then crystallized to an assemblage of dendritic olivine, skeletal hypersthene, opaque oxide and Mg-hercynite in a microcrystalline plagioclase matrix. An original mineral assemblage of zeolite, calcite, and saponite-nontronite in the amygdales melted and quenched to a brown glass now containing complexly zoned pyroxenes with plagioclase and opaque oxide. Melting commenced between 700–800°C, reaching a maximum temperature of 1168°C, and was followed by rapid cooling. The assimilation of remelted basalt may alter the course of crystallization of contaminated magmas.
