Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Rhyolite is an extrusive igneous rock, formed from magma rich in silica that is extruded from a volcanic vent to cool quickly on the surface rather than slowly in the subsurface. It is generally light in color due to its low content of mafic minerals, and it is typically very fine-grained ( aphanitic ) or glassy .
Magma that cools slowly within a magma chamber usually ends up forming bodies of plutonic rocks such as gabbro, diorite and granite, depending upon the composition of the magma. Alternatively, if the magma is erupted it forms volcanic rocks such as basalt , andesite and rhyolite (the extrusive equivalents of gabbro, diorite and granite ...
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.
Magma exists in three main forms that vary in composition. [3] When magma crystallizes within the crust, it forms an extrusive igneous rock. Dependent on the composition of the magma, it may form either rhyolite, andesite, or basalt. [3] Volatiles, particularly water and carbon dioxide, significantly impact the behavior of each form of magma ...
Andesite is an aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (coarse-grained) igneous rock that is intermediate in its content of silica and low in alkali metals. It has less than 20% quartz and 10% feldspathoid by volume, with at least 65% of the feldspar in the rock consisting of plagioclase. This places andesite in the basalt /andesite field of ...
Calderas are volcanic depressions formed after an erupted volcano collapses. Resurgent calderas can refill with an eruption of rhyolitic magma to form the extrusive rock rhyolite like the Yellowstone Caldera. [2] Submarine volcanoes erupt on the ocean floor and produce the extrusive rock pumice. [2] Pumice is a light-weight glass with a ...
Rhyolitic lava dome of Chaitén Volcano during its 2008–2010 eruption One of the Inyo Craters, an example of a rhyolite dome Nea Kameni seen from Thera, Santorini. In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular, mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano.
A large igneous province (LIP) is an extremely large accumulation of igneous rocks, including intrusive (sills, dikes) and extrusive (lava flows, tephra deposits), arising when magma travels through the crust towards the surface. The formation of LIPs is variously attributed to mantle plumes or to processes associated with divergent plate ...