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Original - The rock cycle is a fundamental concept in geology that describes the dynamic transitions through geologic time among the three main rock types: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. Due to the driving forces of the rock cycle, plate tectonics and the water cycle , rocks do not remain in equilibrium and are forced to change as they ...
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.
Igneous rocks include rocks that have solidified from a melt either below the surface of a planet or natural satellite as intrusives or on the surface as extrusives or volcanic eruptions. The main article for this category is Igneous rock .
Mineralogical composition of igneous rocks with decreasing silica (SiO 2) content. The rock names for volcanic/extrusive and plutonic/intrusive rocks are written above. Notice that this is a rough way to determine a rock name: the exact difference between the given igneous rocks does not only depend on silica content. Date: March 2009: Source ...
Trachyte – Extrusive igneous rock – A silica-undersaturated volcanic rock; essentially a feldspathoid-bearing rhyolite; Troctolite – Igneous rock – A plutonic ultramafic rock containing olivine, pyroxene and plagioclase; Trondhjemite – Light-colored intrusive igneous rock – A form of tonalite where plagioclase-group feldspar is ...
QAPF diagram for classification of plutonic rocks. A QAPF diagram is a doubled-triangle plot diagram used to classify intrusive igneous rocks based on their mineralogy.The acronym QAPF stands for "Quartz, Alkali feldspar, Plagioclase, Feldspathoid (Foid)", which are the four mineral groups used for classification in a QAPF diagram.
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 ...
Cross-sectional diagram of phacoliths (red) in older folded rocks. A phacolith is a pluton of igneous rock parallel to the bedding plane or foliation of folded country rock. More specifically, it is a typically lens-shaped pluton that occupies either the crest of an anticline or the trough of a syncline.