Volcanic rock in North America.

Plutonic rock in North America.

Igneous rock (derived from the Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native, fluent speakers, Latin continues to be taught in schools and has been, and currently is, used in the process of new word production in modern languages from many word igneus meaning of fire, from ignis meaning fire) is one of the three main rock In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids types, the others being sedimentary Sedimentary rock is a type of rock that is formed by sedimentation of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution. Particles that form a sedimentary rock by accumulating and metamorphic rock Metamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure causing profound physical and/or chemical change. The protolith may be sedimentary rock, igneous rock or another older metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification In physical science, freezing or solidification is the process in which a liquid turns into a solid when cold enough. The freezing point is the temperature at which this happens. Melting, the process of turning a solid to a liquid, is almost the exact opposite of freezing. All known liquids undergo freezing when the temperature is lowered enough, of magma Magma [from Greek μάγμα, paste] is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and may also exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and gas bubbles. Magma often collects in magma chambers that may feed a volcano or turn into a pluton or lava Lava is molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at temperatures from 700 °C to 1,200 °C . Up to 100,000 times as viscous as water, lava can flow great distances before. Igneous rock may form with or without crystallization Crystallization is the process of formation of solid crystals precipitating from a solution, melt or more rarely deposited directly from a gas. Crystallization is also a chemical solid-liquid separation technique, in which mass transfer of a solute from the liquid solution to a pure solid crystalline phase occurs, either below the surface as intrusive An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under the surface of the earth. Magma from under the surface slowly moves its way up from deep within the earth and moves into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years or more to form. As the rock slowly cools into a (plutonic A pluton in geology is an intrusive igneous rock body that crystallized from magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Plutons include batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, lopoliths, and other igneous bodies. In practice, "pluton" usually refers to a distinctive mass of igneous rock, typically kilometers in dimension, without) rocks or on the surface as extrusive Extrusive refers to the mode of igneous volcanic rock formation in which hot magma from inside the Earth flows out onto the surface as lava or explodes violently into the atmosphere to fall back as pyroclastics or tuff. This is opposed to intrusive rock formation, in which magma does not reach the surface (volcanic Volcanic rocks are usually fine-grained or aphanitic to glass in texture. They often contain clasts of other rocks and phenocrysts. Phenocrysts are crystals that are larger than the matrix and are identifiable with the unaided eye. Rhomb porphyry is an example with large rhomb shaped phenocrysts embedded in a very fine grained matrix) rocks. This magma can be derived from partial melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planet A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.[a]'s mantle The mantle is a part of a terrestrial planet or other rocky body large enough to have differentiated by density. The interior of the Earth, similar to the other terrestrial planets, is chemically divided into layers. The mantle is a highly viscous layer between the crust and the outer core. Earth's mantle is a rocky shell about 2,890 km thick that or crust In geology, a crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet or moon, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle. The crusts of Earth, our Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Io, and other planetary bodies have been generated largely by igneous processes, and these crusts are richer in incompatible elements than their respective mantles. Typically, the melting is caused by one or more of three processes: an increase in temperature, a decrease in pressure, or a change in composition. Over 700 types of igneous rocks have been described, most of them having formed beneath the surface of Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the World, the Blue Planet,[note 6] or by its Latin name, Terra.[note 7]'s crust In geology, a crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet or moon, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle. The crusts of Earth, our Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Io, and other planetary bodies have been generated largely by igneous processes, and these crusts are richer in incompatible elements than their respective mantles. These have diverse properties, depending on their composition and how they were formed.

Contents

Geological significance

The upper 16 kilometres (10 mi) of Earth's crust In geology, a crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet or moon, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle. The crusts of Earth, our Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Io, and other planetary bodies have been generated largely by igneous processes, and these crusts are richer in incompatible elements than their respective mantles is composed of approximately 95% igneous rocks with only a thin, widespread covering of sedimentary Sedimentary rock is a type of rock that is formed by sedimentation of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution. Particles that form a sedimentary rock by accumulating and metamorphic Metamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure causing profound physical and/or chemical change. The protolith may be sedimentary rock, igneous rock or another older metamorphic rocks.[1]

Igneous rocks are geologically important because:

Morphology and setting

In terms of modes of occurrence, igneous rocks can be either intrusive An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under the surface of the earth. Magma from under the surface slowly moves its way up from deep within the earth and moves into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years or more to form. As the rock slowly cools into a (plutonic), extrusive Extrusive refers to the mode of igneous volcanic rock formation in which hot magma from inside the Earth flows out onto the surface as lava or explodes violently into the atmosphere to fall back as pyroclastics or tuff. This is opposed to intrusive rock formation, in which magma does not reach the surface (volcanic Volcanic rocks are usually fine-grained or aphanitic to glass in texture. They often contain clasts of other rocks and phenocrysts. Phenocrysts are crystals that are larger than the matrix and are identifiable with the unaided eye. Rhomb porphyry is an example with large rhomb shaped phenocrysts embedded in a very fine grained matrix) or hypabyssal Hypabyssal are igneous rocks formed at a depth in between the plutonic and volcanic rocks. They are characterized by their porphyritic nature . They consist of phenocrysts embedded in a fine-grained groundmass.

Intrusive igneous rocks

Close-up of granite (an intrusive igneous rock) exposed in Chennai Chennai , formerly known as Madras (Tamil: மெட்ராஸ் AKA மதறாஸ்), is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the fifth most populous city in India. Located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, Chennai city had a population of 4.34 million in, India.

Intrusive igneous rocks are formed from magma that cools and solidifies within the crust of a planet. Surrounded by pre-existing rock (called country rock Country rock is a geological term meaning the rock native to an area. It is similar and in many cases interchangeable with the terms basement and wall rocks), the magma cools slowly, and as a result these rocks are coarse grained. The mineral grains in such rocks can generally be identified with the naked eye. Intrusive An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under the surface of the earth. Magma from under the surface slowly moves its way up from deep within the earth and moves into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years or more to form. As the rock slowly cools into a rocks can also be classified according to the shape and size of the intrusive body and its relation to the other formations into which it intrudes. Typical intrusive formations are batholiths A batholith is a large emplacement of igneous intrusive (also called plutonic) rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the earth's crust. Batholiths are almost always made mostly of felsic or intermediate rock-types, such as granite, quartz monzonite, or diorite (see also granite dome), stocks, laccoliths, sills In geology, a sill is a tabular pluton that has intruded between older layers of sedimentary rock, beds of volcanic lava or tuff, or even along the direction of foliation in metamorphic rock. The term sill is synonymous with concordant intrusive sheet. This means that the sill does not cut across preexisting rocks, in contrast to dikes, which do and dikes An intrusive dike is an igneous body with a very high aspect ratio, which means that its thickness is usually much smaller than the other two dimensions. Thickness can vary from sub-centimeter scale to many meters, and the lateral dimensions can extend over many kilometers. A dike is an intrusion into an opening cross-cutting fissure, shouldering.

The central cores of major mountain ranges consist of intrusive igneous rocks, usually granite. When exposed by erosion, these cores (called batholiths A batholith is a large emplacement of igneous intrusive (also called plutonic) rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the earth's crust. Batholiths are almost always made mostly of felsic or intermediate rock-types, such as granite, quartz monzonite, or diorite (see also granite dome)) may occupy huge areas of the Earth's surface.

Coarse grained intrusive igneous rocks which form at depth within the crust are termed as abyssal; intrusive igneous rocks which form near the surface are termed hypabyssal Hypabyssal are igneous rocks formed at a depth in between the plutonic and volcanic rocks. They are characterized by their porphyritic nature . They consist of phenocrysts embedded in a fine-grained groundmass.

Extrusive igneous rocks

Basalt (an extrusive igneous rock in this case); light coloured tracks show the direction of lava flow.

Extrusive igneous rocks are formed at the crust's surface as a result of the partial melting of rocks within the mantle The mantle is a part of a terrestrial planet or other rocky body large enough to have differentiated by density. The interior of the Earth, similar to the other terrestrial planets, is chemically divided into layers. The mantle is a highly viscous layer between the crust and the outer core. Earth's mantle is a rocky shell about 2,890 km thick that and crust. Extrusive Igneous rocks cool and solidify quicker than intrusive igneous rocks. Since the rocks cool very quickly they are fine grained.

The melted rock, with or without suspended crystals and gas bubbles, is called magma Magma [from Greek μάγμα, paste] is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and may also exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and gas bubbles. Magma often collects in magma chambers that may feed a volcano or turn into a pluton. Magma rises because it is less dense than the rock from which it was created. When it reaches the surface, magma extruded onto the surface either beneath water or air, is called lava Lava is molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at temperatures from 700 °C to 1,200 °C . Up to 100,000 times as viscous as water, lava can flow great distances before. Eruptions of volcanoes A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, ash and gases to escape from below the surface into air are termed subaerial whereas those occurring underneath the ocean are termed submarine. Black smokers and mid-ocean ridge A mid-ocean ridge is an underwater mountain range, typically having a valley known as a rift running along its spine, formed by plate tectonics. This type of oceanic ridge is characteristic of what is known as an oceanic spreading center, which is responsible for seafloor spreading. The uplifted seafloor results from convection currents which rise basalt Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey are examples of submarine volcanic activity.

The volume of extrusive rock erupted annually by volcanoes varies with plate tectonic setting. Extrusive rock is produced in the following proportions:[2]

Magma which erupts from a volcano behaves according to its viscosity, determined by temperature, composition, and crystal content. High-temperature magma, most of which is basaltic in composition, behaves in a manner similar to thick oil and, as it cools, treacle. Long, thin basalt flows with pahoehoe surfaces are common. Intermediate composition magma such as andesite tends to form cinder cones of intermingled ash, tuff and lava, and may have viscosity similar to thick, cold molasses or even rubber when erupted. Felsic magma such as rhyolite is usually erupted at low temperature and is up to 10,000 times as viscous as basalt. Volcanoes with rhyolitic magma commonly erupt explosively, and rhyolitic lava flows typically are of limited extent and have steep margins, because the magma is so viscous.

Felsic and intermediate magmas that erupt often do so violently, with explosions driven by release of dissolved gases — typically water but also carbon dioxide. Explosively erupted pyroclastic material is called tephra and includes tuff, agglomerate and ignimbrite. Fine volcanic ash is also erupted and forms ash tuff deposits which can often cover vast areas.

Because lava cools and crystallizes rapidly, it is fine grained. If the cooling has been so rapid as to prevent the formation of even small crystals after extrusion, the resulting rock may be mostly glass (such as the rock obsidian). If the cooling of the lava happened slowly, the rocks would be coarse-grained.

Because the minerals are mostly fine-grained, it is much more difficult to distinguish between the different types of extrusive igneous rocks than between different types of intrusive igneous rocks. Generally, the mineral constituents of fine-grained extrusive igneous rocks can only be determined by examination of thin sections of the rock under a microscope, so only an approximate classification can usually be made in the field.

Hypabyssal igneous rocks

Hypabyssal igneous rocks are formed at a depth in between the plutonic and volcanic rocks. Hypabyssal rocks are less common than plutonic or volcanic rocks and do often form dikes, sills or laccoliths.

Classification

Igneous rocks are classified according to mode of occurrence, texture, mineralogy, chemical composition, and the geometry of the igneous body.

The classification of the many types of different igneous rocks can provide us with important information about the conditions under which they formed. Two important variables used for the classification of igneous rocks are particle size, which largely depends upon the cooling history, and the mineral composition of the rock. Feldspars, quartz or feldspathoids, olivines, pyroxenes, amphiboles, and micas are all important minerals in the formation of almost all igneous rocks, and they are basic to the classification of these rocks. All other minerals present are regarded as nonessential in almost all igneous rocks and are called accessory minerals. Types of igneous rocks with other essential minerals are very rare, and these rare rocks include those with essential carbonates.

In a simplified classification, igneous rock types are separated on the basis of the type of feldspar present, the presence or absence of quartz, and in rocks with no feldspar or quartz, the type of iron or magnesium minerals present. Rocks containing quartz (silica in composition) are silica-oversaturated. Rocks with feldspathoids are silica-undersaturated, because feldspathoids cannot coexist in a stable association with quartz.

Igneous rocks which have crystals large enough to be seen by the naked eye are called phaneritic; those with crystals too small to be seen are called aphanitic. Generally speaking, phaneritic implies an intrusive origin; aphanitic an extrusive one.

An igneous rock with larger, clearly discernible crystals embedded in a finer-grained matrix is termed porphyry. Porphyritic texture develops when some of the crystals grow to considerable size before the main mass of the magma crystallizes as finer-grained, uniform material.

Texture

Gabbro specimen showing phaneritic texture; Rock Creek Canyon, eastern Sierra Nevada, California; scale bar is 2.0 cm. Main article: Rock microstructure

Texture is an important criterion for the naming of volcanic rocks. The texture of volcanic rocks, including the size, shape, orientation, and distribution of mineral grains and the intergrain relationships, will determine whether the rock is termed a tuff, a pyroclastic lava or a simple lava.

However, the texture is only a subordinate part of classifying volcanic rocks, as most often there needs to be chemical information gleaned from rocks with extremely fine-grained groundmass or from airfall tuffs, which may be formed from volcanic ash.

Textural criteria are less critical in classifying intrusive rocks where the majority of minerals will be visible to the naked eye or at least using a hand lens, magnifying glass or microscope. Plutonic rocks tend also to be less texturally varied and less prone to gaining structural fabrics. Textural terms can be used to differentiate different intrusive phases of large plutons, for instance porphyritic margins to large intrusive bodies, porphyry stocks and subvolcanic dikes (apophyses). Mineralogical classification is used most often to classify plutonic rocks. Chemical classifications are preferred to classify volcanic rocks, with phenocryst species used as a prefix, e.g. "olivine-bearing picrite" or "orthoclase-phyric rhyolite".

Basic classification scheme for igneous rocks on their mineralogy. If the approximate volume fractions of minerals in the rock are known the rock name and silica content can be read off the diagram. This is not an exact method because the classification of igneous rocks also depends on other components than silica, yet in most cases it is a good first guess.

Chemical classification

Igneous rocks can be classified according to chemical or mineralogical parameters:

Chemical: total alkali-silica content (TAS diagram) for volcanic rock classification used when modal or mineralogic data is unavailable:

Note: the acid-basic terminology is used more broadly in older (generally British) geological literature. In current literature felsic-mafic roughly substitutes for acid-basic.

Chemical classification also extends to differentiating rocks which are chemically similar according to the TAS diagram, for instance;

An idealized mineralogy (the normative mineralogy) can be calculated from the chemical composition, and the calculation is useful for rocks too fine-grained or too altered for identification of minerals that crystallized from the melt. For instance, normative quartz classifies a rock as silica-oversaturated; an example is rhyolite. A normative feldspathoid classifies a rock as silica-undersaturated; an example is nephelinite.

History of classification

In 1902 a group of American petrographers proposed that all existing classifications of igneous rocks should be discarded and replaced by a "quantitative" classification based on chemical analysis. They showed how vague and often unscientific was much of the existing terminology and argued that as the chemical composition of an igneous rock was its most fundamental characteristic it should be elevated to prime position.

Geological occurrence, structure, mineralogical constitution—the hitherto accepted criteria for the discrimination of rock species—were relegated to the background. The completed rock analysis is first to be interpreted in terms of the rock-forming minerals which might be expected to be formed when the magma crystallizes, e.g., quartz feldspars, olivine, akermannite, feldspathoids, magnetite, corundum and so on, and the rocks are divided into groups strictly according to the relative proportion of these minerals to one another.[3][4]

Mineralogical classification

For volcanic rocks, mineralogy is important in classifying and naming lavas. The most important criterion is the phenocryst species, followed by the groundmass mineralogy. Often, where the groundmass is aphanitic, chemical classification must be used to properly identify a volcanic rock.

Mineralogic contents - felsic versus mafic

For intrusive, plutonic and usually phaneritic igneous rocks where all minerals are visible at least via microscope, the mineralogy is used to classify the rock. This usually occurs on ternary diagrams, where the relative proportions of three minerals are used to classify the rock.

The following table is a simple subdivision of igneous rocks according both to their composition and mode of occurrence.

Composition
Mode of occurrence Felsic Intermediate Mafic Ultramafic
Intrusive Granite Diorite Gabbro Peridotite
Extrusive Rhyolite Andesite Basalt Komatiite
Essential rock forming silicates
Felsic Intermediate Mafic Ultramafic
Coarse Grained Granite Diorite Gabbro Peridotite
Medium Grained Diabase
Fine Grained Rhyolite Andesite Basalt Komatiite

For a more detailed classification see QAPF diagram.

Example of classification

Granite is an igneous intrusive rock (crystallized at depth), with felsic composition (rich in silica and predominately quartz plus potassium-rich feldspar plus sodium-rich plagioclase) and phaneritic, subeuhedral texture (minerals are visible to the unaided eye and commonly some of them retain original crystallographic shapes).

Magma origination

The Earth's crust averages about 35 kilometers thick under the continents, but averages only some 7-10 kilometers beneath the oceans. The continental crust is composed primarily of sedimentary rocks resting on crystalline basement formed of a great variety of metamorphic and igneous rocks including granulite and granite. Oceanic crust is composed primarily of basalt and gabbro. Both continental and oceanic crust rest on peridotite of the mantle.

Rocks may melt in response to a decrease in pressure, to a change in composition such as an addition of water, to an increase in temperature, or to a combination of these processes.

Other mechanisms, such as melting from impact of a meteorite, are less important today, but impacts during accretion of the Earth led to extensive melting, and the outer several hundred kilometers of our early Earth probably was an ocean of magma. Impacts of large meteorites in last few hundred million years have been proposed as one mechanism responsible for the extensive basalt magmatism of several large igneous provinces.

Decompression

Decompression melting occurs because of a decrease in pressure.[5] The solidus temperatures of most rocks (the temperatures below which they are completely solid) increase with increasing pressure in the absence of water. Peridotite at depth in the Earth's mantle may be hotter than its solidus temperature at some shallower level. If such rock rises during the convection of solid mantle, it will cool slightly as it expands in an adiabatic process, but the cooling is only about 0.3°C per kilometer. Experimental studies of appropriate peridotite samples document that the solidus temperatures increase by 3°C to 4°C per kilometer. If the rock rises far enough, it will begin to melt. Melt droplets can coalesce into larger volumes and be intruded upwards. This process of melting from upward movement of solid mantle is critical in the evolution of Earth.

Decompression melting creates the ocean crust at mid-ocean ridges. Decompression melting caused by the rise of mantle plumes is responsible for creating ocean islands like the Hawaiian islands. Plume-related decompression melting also is the most common explanation for flood basalts and oceanic plateaus (two types of large igneous provinces), although other causes such as melting related to meteorite impact have been proposed for some of these huge volumes of igneous rock.

Effects of water and carbon dioxide

The change of rock composition most responsible for creation of magma is the addition of water. Water lowers the solidus temperature of rocks at a given pressure. For example, at a depth of about 100 kilometers, peridotite begins to melt near 800°C in the presence of excess water, but near or above about 1500°C in the absence of water.[6] Water is driven out of the oceanic lithosphere in subduction zones, and it causes melting in the overlying mantle. Hydrous magmas of basalt and andesite composition are produced directly and indirectly as results of dehydration during the subduction process. Such magmas and those derived from them build up island arcs such as those in the Pacific ring of fire. These magmas form rocks of the calc-alkaline series, an important part of continental crust.

The addition of carbon dioxide is relatively a much less important cause of magma formation than addition of water, but genesis of some silica-undersaturated magmas has been attributed to the dominance of carbon dioxide over water in their mantle source regions. In the presence of carbon dioxide, experiments document that the peridotite solidus temperature decreases by about 200°C in a narrow pressure interval at pressures corresponding to a depth of about 70 km. At greater depths, carbon dioxide can have more effect: at depths to about 200 km, the temperatures of initial melting of a carbonated peridotite composition were determined to be 450°C to 600°C lower than for the same composition with no carbon dioxide.[7] Magmas of rock types such as nephelinite, carbonatite, and kimberlite are among those that may be generated following an influx of carbon dioxide into mantle at depths greater than about 70 km.

Temperature increase

Increase of temperature is the most typical mechanism for formation of magma within continental crust. Such temperature increases can occur because of the upward intrusion of magma from the mantle. Temperatures can also exceed the solidus of a crustal rock in continental crust thickened by compression at a plate boundary. The plate boundary between the Indian and Asian continental masses provides a well-studied example, as the Tibetan Plateau just north of the boundary has crust about 80 kilometers thick, roughly twice the thickness of normal continental crust. Studies of electrical resistivity deduced from magnetotelluric data have detected a layer that appears to contain silicate melt and that stretches for at least 1000 kilometers within the middle crust along the southern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.[8] Granite and rhyolite are types of igneous rock commonly interpreted as products of melting of continental crust because of increases of temperature. Temperature increases also may contribute to the melting of lithosphere dragged down in a subduction zone.

Magma evolution

Schematic diagrams showing the principles behind fractional crystallisation in a magma. While cooling, the magma evolves in composition because different minerals crystallize from the melt. 1: olivine crystallizes; 2: olivine and pyroxene crystallize; 3: pyroxene and plagioclase crystallize; 4: plagioclase crystallizes. At the bottom of the magma reservoir, a cumulate rock forms.
Main article: Igneous differentiation

Most magmas only entirely melt for small parts of their histories. More typically, they are mixes of melt and crystals, and sometimes also of gas bubbles. Melt, crystals, and bubbles usually have different densities, and so they can separate as magmas evolve.

As magma cools, minerals typically crystallize from the melt at different temperatures (fractional crystallization). As minerals crystallize, the composition of the residual melt typically changes. If crystals separate from melt, then the residual melt will differ in composition from the parent magma. For instance, a magma of gabbroic composition can produce a residual melt of granitic composition if early formed crystals are separated from the magma. Gabbro may have a liquidus temperature near 1200°C, and derivative granite-composition melt may have a liquidus temperature as low as about 700°C. Incompatible elements are concentrated in the last residues of magma during fractional crystallization and in the first melts produced during partial melting: either process can form the magma that crystallizes to pegmatite, a rock type commonly enriched in incompatible elements. Bowen's reaction series is important for understanding the idealised sequence of fractional crystallisation of a magma.

Magma composition can be determined by processes other than partial melting and fractional crystallization. For instance, magmas commonly interact with rocks they intrude, both by melting those rocks and by reacting with them. Magmas of different compositions can mix with one another. In rare cases, melts can separate into two immiscible melts of contrasting compositions.

There are relatively few minerals that are important in the formation of common igneous rocks, because the magma from which the minerals crystallize is rich in only certain elements: silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron, and magnesium. These are the elements which combine to form the silicate minerals, which account for over ninety percent of all igneous rocks. The chemistry of igneous rocks is expressed differently for major and minor elements and for trace elements. Contents of major and minor elements are conventionally expressed as weight percent oxides (e.g., 51% SiO2, and 1.50% TiO2). Abundances of trace elements are conventionally expressed as parts per million by weight (e.g., 420 ppm Ni, and 5.1 ppm Sm). The term "trace element" typically is used for elements present in most rocks at abundances less than 100 ppm or so, but some trace elements may be present in some rocks at abundances exceeding 1000 ppm. The diversity of rock compositions has been defined by a huge mass of analytical data—over 230,000 rock analyses can be accessed on the web through a site sponsored by the U. S. National Science Foundation (see the External Link to EarthChem).

Etymology

The word "igneous" is derived from the Latin ignis, meaning "of fire". Volcanic rocks are named after Vulcan, the Roman name for the god of fire. Intrusive rocks are also called plutonic rocks, named after Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Klein, Cornelis and Cornelius S. Hurlbut, Jr., Manual of Mineralogy, Wiley, 1985, 20th ed., p 275 ISBN 0-471-80580-7
  2. ^ Fisher, R. V. & Schmincke H.-U., (1984) Pyroclastic Rocks, Berlin, Springer-Verlag
  3. ^ Cross, W. et al. (1903) Quantitative Classification of Igneous Rocks, Chicago, University of Chicago Press
  4. ^ This article incorporates text from the article "Petrology" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.[1]
  5. ^ Geoff C. Brown, C. J. Hawkesworth, R. C. L. Wilson (1992). Understanding the Earth (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 93. ISBN 0521427401. http://books.google.com/books?id=Kgk4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA93.
  6. ^ T. L. Grove, N. Chatterjee, S. W. Parman, and E. Medard, (2006)The influence of H2O on mantle wedge melting. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 249, p. 74-89
  7. ^ R. Dasgupta and M. M. Hirschmann (2007) Effect of variable carbonate concentration on the solidus of mantle peridotite. American Mineralogist, v. 92, p. 370-379
  8. ^ M. J. Unsworth et al. (2005) Crustal rheology of the Himalaya and Southern Tibet inferred from magnetotelluric data. Nature, v. 438, p. 78-81

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Igneous rock
Look up igneous in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Igneous rocks by composition
Type Ultramafic < 45% SiO2 Mafic < 52% SiO2 Intermediate 52–63% SiO2 Intermediate-Felsic 63–69% SiO2 Felsic >69 % SiO2

Volcanic rocks: Subvolcanic rocks: Plutonic rocks:

Komatiite Kimberlite, Lamproite Peridotite

Basalt Diabase (Dolerite) Gabbro

Andesite Diorite

Dacite Granodiorite

Rhyolite Aplite—Pegmatite Granite

Categories: Petrology | Igneous rocks | Volcanology

 

The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Sun Aug 1 04:09:09 2010. [ refresh local cache ]
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

[Hide]▼
'Igneous' News
Geo Minerals to Commence Drilling at Silver Bell West, Arizona - MarketWatch (press release)
marketwatch.com
Geo Minerals to Commence Drilling at Silver Bell West, Arizona - MarketWatch (press release)
Tue, 25 May 2010 13:11:26 GMT+00:00
MarketWatch (press release) ... containing quartz-chalcopyrite vein swarms in igneous rocks adjacent to gold-bearing copper veins in sedimentary rocks comprising the contact aureole. ...
Google News Search: Igneous,
Fri Jun 18 02:31:38 2010
'Igneous' Images
igneous rock 07 jpg
scottsdalecc.edu
igneous rock 07 jpg
416px x 400px | 29.30kB

[source page]

Peridotite

Yahoo Images Search: Igneous,
Wed Feb 10 21:28:46 2010
'Igneous' Blogs
Take a Ride on the Swing of Death
dragonsmakeigneousrocks.blogspot.com
Take a Ride on the Swing of Death

Marc

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:39:00 GM

Being an avid surfer of the web, I have seen many dumb and dangerous things BUT this one takes the cake. I mean it's really cool and all, but seriously! Wow, check out this video and start planning your "Swing of Death".

Google Blogs Search: Igneous,
Tue Mar 2 12:59:32 2010
'Igneous' Answers
What is the answer of this question about volcanoes and igneous rocks?
Q. The texture of an igneous rock is determined by its ___ of cooling, therefore volcanic rocks are typically ___-grained, and solidify ___ the earth's surface, A) temperature; coarse; at B) rate; fine; beneath C) color; coarse; at D) method; glassy; below E) rate; fine; near (Only available for people whose major is Geology.)
Asked by Hoon C - Tue Oct 13 07:24:23 2009 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. E. The closer to air (lava - volcanic), the quicker it cools, the smaller the crystals. Magma is much deeper, so you get slower cooling and larger crystals.
Answered by Tara S - Wed Oct 14 00:02:27 2009

Yahoo Answers Search: Igneous,
Sun Jul 4 07:05:55 2010
[Hide]▲