DLyons Jun 25, 2013:

@all I'm happy to have the points re-assigned to Neil. I wouldn't have posted if I'd seen his posting first.

Barbara L Pavlik (asker) Jun 25, 2013:

Hi Neil, I know, and that's how I usually do it, and I certainly didn't mean to offend you, but I had a real internal struggle with this one, because I was thinking about future users of the Kudoz glossary, and the answer I chose offered a bit more information and was a bit more helpful to me, because in my case, I was translating into American English. I would have specified if I had suspected there might be a difference, but it's not all that common for scientific terms to be different between British and American English. So that's what went into my decision. As I say, it was a tough call, but I was just trying to do the right thing. I don't know if anyone else would agree with my decision, but it's not always easy to make the choice in cases like this. So, I do apologize if I've offended you, and I do appreciate your input greatly.

Neil Ashby Jun 24, 2013:

Barbera, The usual custom when two equivalent answers appear at approximately the same time is to give the first one the points. CHeers!

Charles Davis Jun 17, 2013:

Hi Barbara In case you need to know, the little holes are called vesicles.

Barbara L Pavlik (asker) Jun 17, 2013:

Well, that was fast. Thanks, everyone!

DLyons Jun 17, 2013:

@Charles OED doesn't make a distinction, but then they mightn't anyway; so that's not conclusive. I might do some more checking later on.

Charles Davis Jun 17, 2013:

Amygdale / amygdule Wikipedia says amygdule is primarily American and amygdale is primarily British, which supports Donal's reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdule

But here's an alternative account of the difference:
"Amygdule is the diminutive of amygdale, and consequently the terms are not strictly synonymous."
http://www.mindat.org/glossary/amygdule

Barbara L Pavlik (asker) Jun 17, 2013:

Actually, though, what can be seen in the photo are a lot of little holes in the rock.