rock: Igneous Rocks

Igneous Rocks

Igneous rock originates from the cooling and solidification of molten matter from the earth's interior. If the rock is formed on the earth's surface (i.e., from the solidification of lava), it is called extrusive rock; igneous rock that has cooled and solidified slowly beneath the earth's surface is intrusive rock. Among the forms commonly taken by intrusive rocks are batholiths, which are enormous, irregular masses cutting or displacing older rocks; stocks, irregular and smaller than batholiths; necks, or plugs, columnar in form and probably the result of the hardening of magma in the necks of extinct volcanoes; dikes, more or less vertical, filling fissures in previously existing rock; sills, more or less horizontal, forced between layers of previously existing rock; and laccoliths, modified domelike sills that arch under the overlying rock.

Igneous rocks are commonly divided into classes by texture. Some rocks are markedly granular (e.g., granite, syenite, diorite, gabbro, peridotite, and pyroxenite), while others (e.g., basalt, trachite, dacite, and andesite) are composed of grains visible only under a microscope. Both fine-grained and coarse-grained igneous rocks frequently contain grains called phenocrysts that are larger than the surrounding grains; such rocks are said to be porphyritic in texture (see porphyry). Rocks with grains of uniform size are called equigranular.

Igneous rocks are commonly light in color if their constituent minerals are predominantly alkali feldspars and dark in color if the feldspars are calcic or if magnesia and iron minerals are abundant. The glassy igneous rocks include obsidian, pitchstone, and pumice, which contain few or no phenocrysts, and vitrophyre, or glass porphyry, which does contain phenocrysts. Rocks such as tuff and volcanic breccia, which are formed from fragmental volcanic material, are sometimes grouped as pyroclastic rocks.

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