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Porphyritic is an adjective used in geology to describe igneous rocks with a distinct difference in the size of mineral crystals, with the larger crystals known as phenocrysts. Both extrusive and intrusive rocks can be porphyritic, meaning all types of igneous rocks can display some degree of porphyritic texture.
The simultaneous crystallization of the remaining minerals produces the finer-grained matrix surrounding the phenocrysts, as they crowd each other out. [7] The significance of porphyritic texture as an indication that magma forms through different stages of cooling was first recognized by the Canadian geologist, Norman L. Bowen, in 1928. [8]
Basalt is composed mostly of oxides of silicon, iron, magnesium, potassium, aluminum, titanium, and calcium. Geologists classify igneous rock by its mineral content whenever possible; the relative volume percentages of quartz (crystalline silica (SiO 2)), alkali feldspar, plagioclase, and feldspathoid are particularly
Porphyritic rocks are often named using mineral name modifiers, normally in decreasing order of abundance. Thus when olivine forms the primary phenocrysts in a basalt, the name may be refined from basalt to porphyritic olivine basalt or olivine phyric basalt . [ 5 ]
The minerals in a phaneritic igneous rock are sufficiently large to see each individual crystal with the naked eye. Examples of phaneritic igneous rocks are gabbro , diorite , and granite . Porphyritic textures develop when conditions during the cooling of magma change relatively quickly.
Accessory minerals like pyroxenes provide insight to the history of the magma. The formation of dacite provides a great deal of information about the connection between oceanic crust and continental crust. It provides a model for the generation of felsic, buoyant, perennial rock from a mafic, dense, short-lived one.
Alkali basalt is one of the rocks comprising the Pali-Aike volcanic field, in Argentina. [1]Alkali basalt or alkali olivine basalt is a dark-colored, porphyritic volcanic rock [2] usually found in oceanic and continental areas associated with volcanic activity, such as oceanic islands, continental rifts and volcanic fields. [3]
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).