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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. Molten felsic magma and lava is more viscous than molten mafic magma and lava.
In a widely accepted silica-content classification scheme, rocks with more than 65 percent silica are called felsic; those with between 55 and 65 percent silica are intermediate; those with between 45 and 55 percent silica are mafic; and those with less than 45 percent are ultramafic.
Felsic rocks are silica-rich rocks high in minerals like quartz, feldspars, or muscovite and relatively low iron and magnesium minerals. Usually, rocks classified as felsic have at least 75% felsic minerals. These minerals are orthoclase, quartz, and plagioclase. Those with more than 90% are leucocratic. Felsic rocks are usually light-colored.
Definition: Felsic rocks are rich in silica (over 65%) and contain a high proportion of lighter minerals like quartz and feldspar. The term “felsic” derives from “feldspar” and “silica”. Characteristics: These rocks are generally light in color, ranging from white to pink or light grey.
For igneous rock, the composition is divided into four groups: felsic, intermediate, mafic, and ultramafic. These groups refer to differing amounts of silica, iron, and magnesium found in the minerals that make up the rocks.
Learn about felsic rocks, including the felsic definition. Discover felsic minerals, felsic rock composition, how felsic magmas form, and if granite is felsic. Updated: 11/21/2023.
Igneous rock - Minerals, Magma, Crystals: The major mineralogical components of igneous rocks can be divided into two groups: felsic (from feldspar and silica) and mafic (from magnesium and ferrous iron). The felsic minerals include quartz, tridymite, cristobalite, feldspars (plagioclase and alkali feldspar), feldspathoids (nepheline and ...
Felsic igneous rocks, as a whole rock, tend to have light colors or shades: white, pink, light brown, light gray. Mafic igneous rocks, on the whole, tend to be dark colored, commonly black or dark gray.
Felsic rocks are light-colored rocks high in silica and felsic minerals and low in mafic minerals. Due to their high silica content, which is > 63 wt. %, these rocks are sometimes known as silicic or acidic. Examples of felsic rocks are granite, obsidian, rhyolite, dacite, and rhyodacite.
felsic. Can refer to a volcanic rock with higher silica composition, or the minerals that make up those rocks, namely quartz, feldspar (both potassium feldspar and plagioclase feldspar), and muscovite mica.