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Examples of phaneritic igneous rocks are gabbro, diorite, and granite. Porphyritic textures develop when conditions during the cooling of magma change relatively quickly. The earlier formed minerals will have formed slowly and remain as large crystals, whereas, sudden cooling causes the rapid crystallization of the remainder of the melt into a ...
Graphic granite is a leucocratic granitic rock consisting of alkali feldspar with exsolved quartz typically forming a distinctive repetitive pattern sometimes resembling cuneiform writing. Experiments have shown that graphic granite texture is derived from large single crystals of quartz and feldspar interleaving to create the cuneiform illusion.
Granite is a hard stone and requires skill to carve by hand. Until the early 18th century, in the Western world, granite could be carved only by hand tools with generally poor results. A key breakthrough was the invention of steam-powered cutting and dressing tools by Alexander MacDonald of Aberdeen , inspired by seeing ancient Egyptian granite ...
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Often the species of mafic minerals is included in the name, for instance, hornblende-bearing granite, pyroxene tonalite or augite megacrystic monzonite, because the term "granite" already assumes content with feldspar and quartz. The rock texture thus determines the basic name of a felsic rock. Close-up of granite from Yosemite National Park.
Blue Granite – Variety of monzonite, an igneous rock; Epidosite – Hydrothermally altered epidote- and quartz-bearing rock; Felsite – Very fine-grained volcanic rock that sometimes contains larger crystals; Flint – Cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz; Ganister – Hard, fine-grained quartzose sandstone, or orthoquartzite
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The hardest stone frequently carved is granite, at about 8 on the Mohs scale. It is the most durable of sculptural stones and, correspondingly, an extremely difficult stone to work. [2] Basalt columns, being even harder than the granite, are less frequently carved. This stone takes on a beautiful black appearance when polished.