The igneous rocks are divided into two general classes,--the
VOLCANIC or ERUPTIVE rocks, which have been outpoured in open air
or on the floor of the sea, and the INTRUSIVE rocks, which have
been intruded within the rocks of the crust and have solidified
below the surface. The two classes are alike in chemical
composition and may be divided into acidic and basic groups. In
texture the intrusive rocks differ from the volcanic rocks because
of the different conditions under which they have solidified. They
cooled far more slowly beneath the cover of the rocks into which
they were pressed than is permitted to lava flows in open air.
Their constituent minerals had ample opportunity to sort
themselves and crystallize from the fluid mixture, and none of
that mixture was left to congeal as a glassy paste.
They consolidated also under pressure. They are never scoriaceous,
for the steam with which they were charged was not allowed to
expand and distend them with steam blebs. In the rocks of the
larger intrusive masses one may see with a powerful microscope
exceedingly minute cavities, to be counted by many millions to the
cubic inch, in which the gaseous water which the mass contained
was held imprisoned under the immense pressure of the overlying
rocks.
Naturally these characteristics are best developed in the
intrusives which cooled most slowly, i.e. in the deepest-seated
and largest masses; while in those which cooled more rapidly, as
in dikes and sheets, we find gradations approaching the texture of
surface flows.
VARIETIES OF THE INTRUSIVE ROCKS. We will now describe a few of
the varieties of rocks of deep-seated intrusions. All are even
grained, consisting of a mass of crystalline grains formed during
one continuous stage of solidification, and no porphyritic
crystals appear as in lavas.
GRANITE, as we have learned already, is composed of three
minerals,--quartz, feldspar, and mica. According to the color of
the feldspar the rock may be red, or pink, or gray. Hornblende--a
black or dark green mineral, an iron-magnesian silicate, about as
hard as feldspar--is sometimes found as a fourth constituent, and
the rock is then known as HORNBLENDIC GRANITE. Granite is an
acidic rock corresponding to rhyolite in chemical composition. We
may believe that the same molten mass which supplies this acidic
lava in surface flows solidifies as granite deep below ground in
the volcanic reservoir.
SYENITE, composed of feldspar and mica, has consolidated from a
less siliceous mixture than has granite.
DIORITE, still less siliceous, is composed of hornblende and
feldspar,--the latter mineral being of different variety from the
feldspar of granite and syenite.
GABBRO, a typical basic rock, corresponds to basalt in chemical
composition. It is a dark, heavy, coarsely crystalline aggregate
of feldspar and AUGITE (a dark mineral allied to hornblende). It
often contains MAGNETITE (the magnetic black oxide of iron) and
OLIVINE (a greenish magnesian silicate).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account