Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
"Imperial Porphyry" from the Red Sea Mountains of Egypt A waterworn cobble of porphyry Rhyolite porphyry from Colorado; scale bar in lower left is 1 cm (0.39 in). Porphyry (/ ˈ p ɔːr f ə r i / POR-fə-ree) is any of various granites or igneous rocks with coarse-grained crystals such as feldspar or quartz dispersed in a fine-grained silicate-rich, generally aphanitic matrix or groundmass.
Igneous textures include the rock textures occurring in igneous rocks. Igneous textures are used by geologists in determining the mode of origin of igneous rocks and are used in rock classification. The six main types of textures are phaneritic, aphanitic, porphyritic, glassy, pyroclastic, and pegmatitic.
Esterellite is a porphyritic rock, completely crystalline, containing large phenocrysts (plagioclases, quartz, ferromagnesians), which are very visible to the naked eye, and a matrix of very small microcrystals.
Porphyritic texture in a granite. This is an intrusive porphyritic rock. The white, square feldspar phenocrysts are much larger than crystals in the surrounding matrix; eastern Sierra Nevada, Rock Creek Canyon, California. A porphyritic volcanic sand grain, as seen under the petrographic microscope. The large grain in the middle is of a much ...
This porphyritic texture is indicative of multi-stage cooling of magma. For example, porphyritic andesite will have large phenocrysts of plagioclase in a fine-grained matrix. Also in South Africa , diamonds are often mined from a matrix of weathered clay -like rock ( kimberlite ) called "yellow ground".
A large number of the finer quartz-porphyries are also in some degree silicified of impregnated by quartz, chalcedony and opal, derived from the silica set free by decomposition (kaolinization) of the original feldspar. This re-deposited silica forms veins and patches of indefinite shape or may bodily replace a considerable area of the rock by ...
Overall, the granite is a porphyritic rock that is composed of plagioclase feldspar, quartz, and biotite, and contains large pink microcline chunks throughout the matrix. The microcline megacrysts appear as blocky, subhedral grains that are generally around 2 cm in length, but can range from 1 to 4 cm.
Phonolite is an uncommon shallow intrusive or extrusive rock, of intermediate chemical composition between felsic and mafic, with texture ranging from aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (mixed fine- and coarse-grained). Phonolite is a variation of the igneous rock trachyte that contains nepheline or leucite rather than quartz. [1]