Common Mafic Rocks Are Granit

Because of their relatively low viscosity mafic lavas may travel great distances and flood the landscapes over which they flow.

Common mafic rocks are granit.

Igneous rocks typically consist of approximately 12 major oxides totaling over 99 percent of the rock of the oxides silica sio 2 is usually the most abundant. Granite is the most common intrusive igneous rock figure 4 4. All are produced by partial melting of the uppermost asthenosphere. Many of the lunar rocks brought back to earth through the apollo missions are classified as gabbro with high amounts of olivine and other mafic minerals.

It is relating to denoting or containing a group of dark colored mainly ferromagnetic minerals such as pyroxene and olivine. Felsic magma or lava is higher in viscosity than mafic magma lava. Felsic rocks are usually light in color and have specific gravities less than 3. It is the most common plutonic rock of the earth s crust forming by the cooling of magma silicate melt at depth.

Learn more about the properties and uses of granite in this article. Felsic and mafic rocks division of igneous rocks on the basis of their silica content. Granite coarse or medium grained intrusive igneous rock that is rich in quartz and feldspar. Mafic lava flows are thin and sometimes called plateau or flood lavas.

Strictly speaking granite is an. Mafic rocks regardless of tectonic setting have one thing in common. The word mafic comes from ma for magnesium and f for ferrum or the latin for iron. Granite ˈ ɡ r æ n ɪ t is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture.

The most common felsic rock is granite. Common felsic minerals include quartz muscovite orthoclase and the sodium rich plagioclase feldspars albite rich. Mafic rocks are dark in color. Chemical analyses of the most abundant components in rocks usually are presented as oxides of the elements.

It is important to note that there are many intermediate steps in the purification process and many intermediate magmas which are produced during the conversion from mafic to felsic. Peridotite is a common rock found in the deeper mantle of the earth and exhibits more olivine and less quartz than gabbro although both are considered mafic igneous rocks. Granites can be predominantly white pink or gray in color depending on their mineralogy the word granite comes from the latin granum a grain in reference to the coarse grained structure of such a completely crystalline rock.