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Felsic refers to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. Felsic magma or lava is higher in viscosity than mafic magma/lava, and have low temperatures to keep the felsic minerals molten. Felsic rocks are usually light in color and have specific ...
Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as lava) is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural satellites. [3] Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and gas bubbles.
The magma forming this lava is often felsic, having high to intermediate levels of silica (as in rhyolite, dacite, or andesite), with lesser amounts of less viscous mafic magma. [2] Extensive felsic lava flows are uncommon, but have traveled as far as 15 km (9 mi).
It is an igneous rock. [6] Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows. These flows have a high content of silica, granting them a high viscosity.
A batholith (from Ancient Greek bathos 'depth' and lithos 'rock') is a large mass of intrusive igneous rock (also called plutonic rock), larger than 100 km 2 (40 sq mi) in area, [1] that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earth's crust. Batholiths are almost always made mostly of felsic or intermediate rock types, such as granite, quartz ...
The oldest dated rocks formed on Earth, as an aggregate of minerals that have not been subsequently broken down by erosion or melted, are more than 4 billion years old, formed during the Hadean Eon of Earth's geological history, and mark the start of the Archean Eon, which is defined to start with the formation of the oldest intact rocks on Earth.
Felsic eruption forms felsic volcanic rocks near the volcano and a spectrum of volcano-sedimentary sequence in the sea in Archean. [1] Archean felsic volcanic rocks are felsic volcanic rocks that were formed in the Archean Eon (4 to 2.5 billion years ago). [2] The term "felsic" means that the rocks have silica content of 62–78%. [3]
The oldest felsic rocks that are currently exposed intruded pre-existing, even older, mafic crustal rock and crystallized well beneath the Earth's surface. Later, these rocks were thermally metamorphosed, intruded by additional felsic magma, and partially melted during Eoarchean thermal events occurred about 3.85 to 3.72 Ga and 3.66 to 3.59 Ga.