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Molten felsic magma and lava is more viscous than molten mafic magma and 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 ...
Viscosity is a key melt property in understanding the behaviour of magmas. Whereas temperatures in common silicate lavas range from about 800 °C (1,470 °F) for felsic lavas to 1,200 °C (2,190 °F) for mafic lavas, [24] the viscosity of the same lavas ranges over seven orders of magnitude, from 10 4 cP (10 Pa⋅s) for mafic lava to 10 11 cP ...
[31] [37] Rarer magmas such as high-Mg andesite and boninite [38] can be observed, as well as the more common basalts, andesites and dacites. At continental arcs, fractional crystallisation is the dominant process in magma generation, and the melts formed are more evolved due to magmatic differentiation through the felsic continental crust. [37]
Volcanoes with rhyolitic magma commonly erupt explosively, and rhyolitic lava flows are typically of limited extent and have steep margins because the magma is so viscous. [15] Felsic and intermediate magmas that erupt often do so violently, with explosions driven by the release of dissolved gases—typically water vapour, but also carbon dioxide.
Effusive eruptions are most common in basaltic magmas, but they also occur in intermediate and felsic magmas. These eruptions form lava flows and lava domes, each of which vary in shape, length, and width. [2] Deep in the crust, gasses are dissolved into the magma because of high pressures, but upon ascent and eruption, pressure drops rapidly ...
There are three main types of volcanic eruption: Magmatic eruptions are the most well-observed type of eruption. They involve the decompression of gas within magma that propels it forward. Phreatic eruptions are driven by the superheating of steam due to the close proximity of magma.
The lighter felsic magma floats on the mafic magma without significant mixing. [46] Less commonly, felsic magmas are produced by extreme fractional crystallization of more mafic magmas. [47] This is a process in which mafic minerals crystallize out of the slowly cooling magma, which enriches the remaining liquid in silica. If the erupted magma ...
Granite (/ ˈɡrænɪt / GRAN-it) is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underground.