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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).
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, color indices, 0–50 are felsic, 50–90 are mafic, and 90–100 are ultramafic. [6] An online geology textbook provides an example of the use of another classification scheme, in which color indices 0–15 are felsic, 15–45 are intermediate, 45–85 are mafic, and 85–100 are ultramafic. [9]
Mafic enclave in granite rock, at Yosemite National Park Granite forms from silica-rich ( felsic ) magmas. Felsic magmas are thought to form by addition of heat or water vapor to rock of the lower crust , rather than by decompression of mantle rock, as is the case with basaltic magmas. [ 19 ]
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.
Gabbroic enclave included in a granite. In geology, an enclave is an aggregate of minerals or rock observed inside a larger rock body. Usually it refers to such situations in plutonic rocks. Micro-granular enclaves in felsic plutons result from the introduction of mafic magma into the magma chamber and its subsequent cooling following ...
Around 1.9 billion years ago, mafic, intermediate and felsic rocks, in some cases with subordinate metasedimentary rocks, began to form and metamorphosed, reaching greenschist and amphibolite grade on the sequence of metamorphic facies. The Ironwood and Riverton Iron formations are recognized from aerial magnetic surveys.
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S-type granites, like other granite types, can vary in crystal size from aphanitic to phaneritic; crystal size distributions include porphyritic, seriate, and rarely equigranular textures. Mafic xenoliths/enclaves can be found in S-type granites. Granophyric textures can be found in S-type granites, particularly leucocratic ones.