Personal blog about states
plutonic
Batholith. Formed when magma cools and crystallizes beneath Earth’s surface , batholiths are the largest …
Glassy igneous rocks form when magma cools too fast for mineral grains to grow . Basalt is the aphanitic or fine-grained equivalent of gabbro. Plutonic rocks are intrusive and generally consist of mineral grains coarse enough to be readily visible in a hand sample.
Where would you expect to find the largest crystals in a lava flow ? In the center of the flow . What is the approximate silica content of a granite?
The most common extrusive igneous rock is basalt, a rock that is especially common below the oceans (Figure 4.6). Figure 4.5: Extrusive or volcanic igneous rocks form after lava cools above the surface. Figure 4.6: These are examples of basalt below the South Pacific Ocean.
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock . Obsidian is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows.
Felsic magma has the highest silica content of all magma types, between 65-70%. As a result, felsic magma also has the highest gas content and viscosity, and lowest mean temperatures, between 650o and 800o Celsius (1202o and 1472o Fahrenheit).
igneous rocks
Scientists use the term magma for molten rock that is underground and lava for molten rock that breaks through the Earth’s surface.
geo quiz 6
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Spreading center volcanism most generally produces rocks that are ________. | basaltic in composition |
Which kind of eruptive activity is most likely to be highly explosive? | eruptions of big, continental margin, composite cones or stratovolcanoes |
Lava flows are typically finer grained than intrusive igneous rocks. Why? The extrusive magma cools quickly so the mineral grains do not have time to grow.
Where decompression melting occurs . When two plates move apart, they create a space that can be filled by hot rock that rises buoyantly from below. As this hot rock rises, the pressure on it decreases, and the rock can melt .
Gold , as well as other rare metals, can be brought to the surface by plumes of molten rock from deep within the mantle, the layer underneath Earth’s crust, producing background levels of gold up to 13 times higher than elsewhere, according to research published Oct.
Water thick with gold and other metals is heated by magma and forms deposits in volcanoes. Gold ore is formed in the rocks of active volcanoes this way. Now, we can’t climb into an active volcano, but when those volcanoes go dormant or extinct, like much of the Sierra range, those deposits still remain.
If dropped from the top of any volcano, the gold is likely to melt and become one blob of gold that, when the volcano erupts, disperse into microscopic amounts.