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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, muscovite, orthoclase, and the sodium-rich plagioclase feldspars (albite-rich).
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 amounts of black minerals. [2] [3]
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, color indices, 0–50 are felsic, 50–90 are mafic, and 90–100 are ultramafic. [6] An online geology textbook provides an example of the use of another classification scheme, in which color indices 0–15 are felsic, 15–45 are intermediate, 45–85 are mafic, and 85–100 are ultramafic. [9]
Mafic enclave in granite rock, at Yosemite National Park Granite forms from silica-rich ( felsic ) magmas. Felsic magmas are thought to form by addition of heat or water vapor to rock of the lower crust , rather than by decompression of mantle rock, as is the case with basaltic magmas. [ 20 ]
The mafic rocks also typically have a higher density than felsic rocks. The term roughly corresponds to the older basic rock class. [9] Mafic lava, before cooling, has a low viscosity, in comparison with felsic lava, due to the lower silica content in mafic magma. Water and other volatiles can more easily and gradually escape from mafic lava.
The calc-alkaline magma series is one of two main subdivisions of the subalkaline magma series, the other subalkaline magma series being the tholeiitic series. A magma series is a series of compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic magma, which is high in magnesium and iron and produces basalt or gabbro, as it fractionally crystallizes to become a felsic magma, which is low in ...
The mafic minerals in the TTG rock body, possibly biotite, were weathered, which introduced a brownish coating on the TTG rock surface. Tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite ( TTG ) rocks are intrusive rocks with typical granitic composition ( quartz and feldspar ) but containing only a small portion of potassium feldspar .
One example concerns crystallization of melts that form mafic and ultramafic rocks. MgO and SiO 2 concentrations in melts are among the variables that determine whether forsterite olivine or enstatite pyroxene is precipitated, [11] but the water content and pressure are also important. In some compositions, at high pressures without water ...