Granite Rock Color And Texture

Some granite is the oldest known rock on earth.

Granite rock color and texture.

Crystallized at depth granite masses are exposed at the earth s surface. A prime example is the cathedral peak granodiorite which has unusually large up to 3 inches long crystals of potassium feldspar that are thought to have formed through. Granite is composed mainly of quartz and feldspar with minor amounts of mica amphiboles and other minerals this mineral composition usually gives granite a red pink gray or white color with dark mineral. A coarse grained and generally igneous rock of even texture and light color composed chiefly of quartz and feldspars.

The size and shape of the mineral grains or crystals and the pattern of their arrangement give a texture to the rock. The texture of a rock provides a clue whether the magma cooled fast or slowly and where the rock was formed. It usually contains small quantities of mica or hornblende and sometimes minor accessory minerals. It has colorless grains and it is mottled in white red pink grey or dark grains.

Granite is a light colored igneous rock with grains large enough to be visible with the unaided eye. Texture of a rock is the appearance of the rock and how one feels touching it. 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. The thermal history of a granite how fast it cooled and how long it spent at different temperatures dictates the size of the mineral grains and thus the rock texture.

It is classified as acid plutonic igneous rock and it commonly occurs in batholiths. Granite also tends to have coarse intergrowths of feldspars and quartz that form a graphic texture. It forms from the slow crystallization of magma below earth s surface.