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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]
Peridotite, a type of ultramafic rock. Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are usually composed of greater than 90% mafic minerals (dark colored, high magnesium and iron content).
They are essentially of intermediate or of mafic character. We might in consequence regard them as varieties of syenite, diorite, gabbro, etc., in which feldspathoid minerals occur, and indeed there are many transitions between syenites of ordinary type and nepheline — or leucite — syenite, and between gabbro or dolerite and theralite or ...
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).
In igneous petrology, an intermediate composition refers to the chemical composition of a rock that has 51.5–63 wt% SiO 2 being an intermediate between felsic and mafic compositions. Typical intermediate rocks include andesite and trachyandesite among volcanic rocks and diorite and granodiorite among plutonic rocks .
Assimilation is a popular mechanism to partly explain the felsification of ultramafic and mafic magmas as they rise through the crust: a hot primitive melt intruding into a cooler, felsic crust will melt the crust and mix with the resulting melt. [2] This then alters the composition of the primitive magma.
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 ...
In a simplified compositional classification, igneous rock types are categorized into felsic or mafic based on the abundance of silicate minerals in the Bowen's Series. Rocks dominated by quartz, plagioclase, alkali feldspar and muscovite are felsic. Mafic rocks are primarily composed of biotite, hornblende, pyroxene and olivine.