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Volcanic rocks are named according to both their chemical composition and texture. Basalt is a very common volcanic rock with low silica content. Rhyolite is a volcanic rock with high silica content. Rhyolite has silica content similar to that of granite while basalt is compositionally equal to gabbro.
Vesicular texture is a volcanic rock texture characterized by a rock being pitted with many cavities (known as vesicles) at its surface and inside. [ 1 ] This texture is common in aphanitic , or glassy, igneous rocks that have come to the surface of the Earth, a process known as extrusion .
Phaneritic (phaner = visible) textures are typical of intrusive igneous rocks, these rocks crystallized slowly below Earth's surface. As magma cools slowly the minerals have time to grow and form large crystals. The minerals in a phaneritic igneous rock are sufficiently large to see each individual crystal with the naked eye. Examples of ...
Scoria or cinder is a pyroclastic, highly vesicular, dark-colored volcanic rock formed by ejection from a volcano as a molten blob and cooled in the air to form discrete grains called clasts. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It is typically dark in color (brown, black or purplish-red), and basaltic or andesitic in composition.
Trachybasalt – Volcanic rock – A volcanic rock with a composition between basalt and trachyte Hawaiite – Volcanic rock – a sodic type of trachybasalt, typically formed by ocean island volcanism; Trachyte – Extrusive igneous rock – A silica-undersaturated volcanic rock; essentially a feldspathoid-bearing rhyolite
Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. [1] [2] Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock containing 25% to 75% ash is described as tuffaceous (for example, tuffaceous sandstone). [3]
Texture is an important criterion for the naming of volcanic rocks. The texture of volcanic rocks, including the size, shape, orientation, and distribution of mineral grains and the intergrain relationships, will determine whether the rock is termed a tuff, a pyroclastic lava or a simple lava.
Shield volcanoes are large, slow forming volcanoes [6] that erupt fluid basaltic magma that cools to form the extrusive rock basalt. Basalt is composed of minerals readily available in the planet's crust, including feldspars and pyroxenes. [2] Fissure volcanoes pour out low viscosity basaltic magma from fissure vents to form the extrusive rock ...