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Granite (/ ˈ ɡ r æ n ɪ t / GRAN-it) is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase.It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underground.
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]
Chile Bar Slate company quarry, off of highway CA193 next to the American River near Placerville, California; Limestone quarry near Auburn, California of the Mountain Quarries Company of San Francisco, a subsidiary of Pacific Portland Cement Company, near confluence of the North Fork and the Middle Fork of the American River.
The average density of basalt is 2.9 g/cm 3, compared, for example, to granite’s typical density of 2.7 g/cm 3. [16] The viscosity of basaltic magma is relatively low—around 10 4 to 10 5 cP—similar to the viscosity of ketchup, but that is still several orders of magnitude higher than the viscosity of water, which is about 1 cP). [17]
Intrusive igneous rocks that form near the surface are termed subvolcanic or hypabyssal rocks and they are usually much finer-grained, often resembling volcanic rock. [8] Hypabyssal rocks are less common than plutonic or volcanic rocks and often form dikes, sills, laccoliths, lopoliths, or phacoliths.
Exfoliating slabs of granite, on Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, USA. Exfoliating granite is a granite undergoing exfoliation, or onion skin weathering (desquamation).The external delaminated layers of granite are gradually produced by the cyclic variations of temperature at the surface of the rock in a process also called spalling.
The source rocks which provide the heavy mineral sands determine the composition of the economic minerals. The source of zircon, monazite, rutile, sometimes tungsten, and some ilmenite is usually granite. The source of ilmenite, garnet, sapphire and diamond is ultramafic and mafic rocks, such as kimberlite or basalt.
The Snowbelt, Snow Belt, Frostbelt, or Frost Belt [1] is the region near the Great Lakes in North America where heavy snowfall in the form of lake-effect snow is particularly common. [2] Snowbelts are typically found downwind of the lakes, principally off the eastern and southern shores.