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Felsic refers to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. Molten felsic magma and lava is more viscous than molten mafic magma and lava. Felsic magmas and lavas have lower temperatures of melting and solidification than mafic magmas and lavas.
The word lava comes from Italian and is probably derived from the Latin word labes, which means a fall or slide. [2] [3] An early use of the word in connection with extrusion of magma from below the surface is found in a short account of the 1737 eruption of Vesuvius, written by Francesco Serao, who described "a flow of fiery lava" as an analogy to the flow of water and mud down the flanks of ...
The tendency of felsic lava to be cooler than mafic lava increases the viscosity difference. The silicon ion is small and highly charged, and so it has a strong tendency to coordinate with four oxygen ions, which form a tetrahedral arrangement around the much smaller silicon ion. This is called a silica tetrahedron. In a magma that is low in ...
lava Molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption. leucocratic A term used to denote a light colour in igneous rocks, due to a high content of felsic minerals and a correspondingly small amount of dark, heavy silicates. limestone A sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite (calcium carbonate: CaCO 3). liquefaction
Felsic lava flow and lava dome are the two common types of underwater deposits formed by Archean felsic volcanic rocks (Fig. 4). [7] Documented Archean lava structures are distinctive from post-Archean felsic lava because underwater eruptions are so rare in the post-Archean. [39] The dacitic or rhyolitic lava flows are quenched right after the ...
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 ...
Pahoehoe lava is a relatively smooth lava flow that can be billowy or ropey. They can move as one sheet, by the advancement of "toes", or as a snaking lava column. [10] A'a lava flows are denser and more viscous than pahoehoe, and tend to move slower. Flows can measure 2 to 20 m (7 to 66 ft) thick.
The terms lava stone and lava rock are more used by marketers than geologists, who would likely say "volcanic rock" (because lava is a molten liquid and rock is solid). "Lava stone" may describe anything from a friable silicic pumice to solid mafic flow basalt, and is sometimes used to describe rocks that were never lava , but look as if they ...