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Granite is a hard stone and requires skill to carve by hand. Until the early 18th century, in the Western world, granite could be carved only by hand tools with generally poor results. A key breakthrough was the invention of steam-powered cutting and dressing tools by Alexander MacDonald of Aberdeen , inspired by seeing ancient Egyptian granite ...
Claystone – Clastic sedimentary rock composed primarily of clay-sized particles. Coal – Combustible sedimentary rock composed primarily of carbon. Conglomerate – Sedimentary rock composed of smaller rock fragments. Coquina – Sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of fragments of shells.
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's outer solid layer, the crust, and most of its interior, except for the liquid outer core and pockets of ...
Porphyry (geology) "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 (/ ˈpɔːrfəri / POR-fə-ree) is any of various granites or igneous rocks with coarse-grained crystals such as feldspar or quartz dispersed in a fine ...
The granite of the dimension-stone industry along with truly granitic rock also includes gneiss, gabbro, anorthosite and even some sedimentary rocks. Natural stone is used as architectural stone (construction, flooring, cladding, counter tops, curbing, etc.) and as raw block and monument stone for the funerary trade.
Larvikite. Polished larvikite (marketed as "Blue Pearl Granite"), showing labradorescence, is a popular decorative stone. Larvikite is an igneous rock, specifically a variety of monzonite, [1] notable for the presence of thumbnail-sized crystals of feldspar. These feldspars are known as ternary because they contain significant components of all ...
Igneous rock (igneous from Latin igneus 'fiery'), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial melts of existing rocks in either a planet 's mantle or crust.
Plagioclase; dark minerals. Alkali feldspar granite, some varieties of which are called 'red granite', [1] is a felsic igneous rock and a type of granite rich in the mineral potassium feldspar (K-spar). It is a dense rock with a phaneritic texture. The abundance of K-spar gives the rock a predominant pink to reddish hue; peppered with minor ...