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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 ...
"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.
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".
Examples of phaneritic igneous rocks are gabbro, diorite, and granite. Porphyritic textures develop when conditions during the cooling of magma change relatively quickly. The earlier formed minerals will have formed slowly and remain as large crystals, whereas, sudden cooling causes the rapid crystallization of the remainder of the melt into a ...
These dark porphyritic basalts are separated from the Mesozoic formations below it by basal conglomerates. The basalts hold phenocrysts that developed before the magma reached the earth surface. These basalts are weathered, partially eroded and have a sub-horizontal stratification, particularly at the lower part.
Basalt (UK: / ˈ b æ s ɒ l t,-ɔː l t,-əl t /; [1] [2] US: / b ə ˈ s ɔː l t, ˈ b eɪ s ɔː l t /) [3] is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon.
Rhomb porphyries are an unusual variety with gray-white porphyritic rhomb shaped phenocrysts embedded in a very fine grained red-brown matrix. The composition of rhomb porphyry places it in the trachyte - latite classification of the QAPF diagram. Latite is found, for example, as lavas in Bulgaria [3] and as intrusive laccoliths and sills in ...
QAPF diagram with basalt/andesite field highlighted in yellow. Andesite is distinguished from basalt by SiO 2 > 52%. Andesite is field O2 in the TAS classification.. Andesite is an aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (coarse-grained) igneous rock that is intermediate in its content of silica and low in alkali metals.