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Skarn: a contact metamorphic rock composed of calcium, magnesium, and iron silicates (with or without iron, copper, and manganese sulphides and oxides) which has been derived from limestone or dolomite by the metasomatic introduction of large amounts of silicon, aluminium, iron, and magnesium from a nearby igneous intrusion, usually a granite. Many skarns serve as host rocks for economic deposits of magnetite and copper sulphides. — A Dictionary of Geology and Earth Sciences (4 ed.), Oxford University Press