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Felsic refers to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. Felsic magma or lava is higher in viscosity than mafic magma/lava, and have low temperatures to keep the felsic minerals molten. Felsic rocks are usually light in color and have specific ...
Igneous rock (igneous from Latin igneus 'fiery'), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial melts of existing rocks in either a planet 's mantle or crust.
The greater the viscosity, the greater the tendency for eruptions to be explosive rather than effusive. As a result, most lava flows on Earth, Mars, and Venus are composed of basalt lava. [36] On Earth, 90% of lava flows are mafic or ultramafic, with intermediate lava making up 8% of flows and felsic lava making up just 2% of flows. [37]
It is an igneous rock. [6] Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows. These flows have a high content of silica, granting them a high viscosity.
A mafic mineral or rock is a silicate mineral or igneous rock rich in magnesium and iron. Most mafic minerals are dark in color, and common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. Common mafic rocks include basalt, diabase and gabbro. Mafic rocks often also contain calcium -rich varieties of plagioclase ...
Types of volcanic eruptions. Some of the eruptive structures formed during volcanic activity (counterclockwise): a Plinian eruption column, Hawaiian pahoehoe flows, and a lava arc from a Strombolian eruption. Several types of volcanic eruptions —during which material is expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure —have been distinguished by ...
Felsic lava flow and lava dome are the two common types of underwater deposits formed by Archean felsic volcanic rocks (Fig. 4). [7] Documented Archean lava structures are distinctive from post-Archean felsic lava because underwater eruptions are so rare in the post-Archean. [39] The dacitic or rhyolitic lava flows are quenched right after the ...
The terms lava stone and lava rock are more used by marketers than geologists, who would likely say "volcanic rock" (because lava is a molten liquid and rock is solid). "Lava stone" may describe anything from a friable silicic pumice to solid mafic flow basalt, and is sometimes used to describe rocks that were never lava , but look as if they ...