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The mafic rocks also typically have a higher density than felsic rocks. The term roughly corresponds to the older basic rock class. [9] Mafic lava, before cooling, has a low viscosity, in comparison with felsic lava, due to the lower silica content in mafic magma. Water and other volatiles can more easily and gradually escape from mafic lava.
Felsic magmas and lavas have lower temperatures of melting and solidification than mafic magmas and lavas. Felsic rocks are usually light in color and have specific gravities less than 3. The most common felsic rock is granite. Common felsic minerals include quartz, muscovite, orthoclase, and the sodium-rich plagioclase feldspars (albite-rich).
Mafic rocks have a relatively low silica content and are composed mostly of pyroxenes, olivines and calcic plagioclase. These rocks (basalt, gabbro) are usually dark coloured, and have a higher density than felsic rocks. Ultramafic rock is very low in silica, with more than 90% of mafic minerals (komatiite, dunite).
Felsic or silicic lavas have a silica content greater than 63%. They include rhyolite and dacite lavas. With such a high silica content, these lavas are extremely viscous, ranging from 10 8 cP (10 5 Pa⋅s) for hot rhyolite lava at 1,200 °C (2,190 °F) to 10 11 cP (10 8 Pa⋅s) for cool rhyolite lava at 800 °C (1,470 °F). [13]
The amount of silica that constitutes a silicic rock is usually defined as at least 63 percent. [1] Granite and rhyolite are the most common silicic rocks . Silicic is the group of silicate magmas which will eventually crystallise a relatively small proportion of ferromagnesian silicates , such as amphibole , pyroxene , and biotite .
The term is used in chemical classification of igneous rock based on the content of silica (SiO 2). Due to the fact that chemical analyzes are not always available, especially during the fieldwork, classification based on the mineral (modal) composition is more often used (dividing the igneous rocks into felsic /leucocratic, mafic /melanocratic ...
Peridotite, a type of ultramafic rock. Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are usually composed of greater than 90% mafic minerals (dark colored, high magnesium and iron content).
Its silica content (by one common classification) would make it a mafic rock in chemical terms, but an ultramafic rock in mineralogical terms, because it would be entirely composed of a mafic mineral. [6] Some examples of felsic rocks include granite and rhyolite, while examples of mafic rocks include gabbro and basalt. [1]