CHAPTER 3:

THE STUDY OF ROCKS

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 INTRODUCTION
• Rock is defined as a mixtures formed of aggregates of one or
more minerals.

• Rocks can be formed by many different processes such as:

(1) Igneous - Crystallization of a melts – magma (intrusive) and lava (extrusive)

(2) Sedimentary - Solidifying sediments like sand or clay

(3) Metamorphic - Re-crystallizing previously formed rocks in the solid state

(4) Hydrothermal - Some are formed by crystallization from hot aqueous fluids
(watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4H4W0jiP2w sulfur mining indonesia)

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ROCK CYCLE
https://youtu.be/7m8tevimgco

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ROCK CYCLE

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 https://youtu.be/EGK1KkLjdQY

Video about types of rock and rock cycle.

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CHAPTER 3.1:

IGNEOUS ROCKS

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 IGNEOUS ROCKS
• Defined as rocks which are normally crystalline in nature having
solidified from an original molten state or magma that exists for
long period of time beneath the surface of earth.

• Igneous rocks can be derived from the (1) cooling of molten

magma or of (2) solidification of lava from volcanic eruption.

• MAGMA is molten rock material generated in the certain zones

deep inside the earth's crust and possible in the upper zones of the
mantle.

• Magma moves from deeper zones to higher zones of the crust

through forceful injections into fractures and faults in the adjacent
rocks.

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 What Is Magma?
• Magma is hot molten mobile rock.

• Magmas come out of active volcanoes as lavas.

• The most abundant magma is a melt of silicate composition and this can
carry suspended crystals and gases which bubble out in air.

• It is a mixture of liquid rock, crystals, and gas.

• Magmas are less dense than surrounding rocks, and therefore it will move
upward.

• If magma makes it to the surface it will erupt and later crystallize to form
an extrusive or volcanic rock.

• If it crystallizes before it reaches the surface it will form an igneous rock at

depth called a plutonic or intrusive igneous rock.

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Extrusive/
Volcanic

Intrusive/
Plutonic

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 Andesit
Magma

The thicknes
may be differ
for different site

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Temperature: 1200 Temperature: 1000 Temperature: 800
-1000°C - 800°C -650°C 12
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 Magma Type (Basaltic) - 1000C -
1200C

Basalt: A fine-grained igneous rock that Gabbro is a dark-colored coarse-grained

is usually black in color.  intrusive igneous rock.
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 Magma Type (Andesitic) - 800C -
1000C

Andesite: Has a porphyritic texture Diorite: This specimen clearly shows the

familiar "salt and pepper" appearance of
diorite, produced by white plagioclase
contrasting with black hornblende and
biotite.

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Magma Type (Rhyolitic) - 650C - 800C

Rhyolite: A pink specimen of rhyolite withGranite: The specimen above is a typical

numerous very tiny vugs with some granite. The grain size is coarse enough to
evidence of flow structures. allow recognition of the major minerals. 

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INTRUSIVE EXTRUSIVE

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 VERY FAST COOLING –
CELLULAR/VESICULAR

Scoria is a dark to intermediate Pumice: This specimen shows the frothy

colored igneous rock with abundant vesicular texture of pumice. It has a
round bubble-like cavities known as specific gravity of less than one and will
vesicles. float on water. 18
 Grain size
Three types of rock can be identified based on predominant grain.
Size that reflects the depth at which molten rocks form within the
Earth:

a) VOLCANIC ROCKS (EXTRUSIVE):

Solidify close to the Earth's surface. Because cool quickly
they have a finer-grained matrix called groundmass. They
may contain some larger crystals that formed earlier further down
called phenocrysts.

b) PLUTONIC ROCKS (INTRUSIVE):

Form deeper within the Earth and the slower cooling allows
them to crystallize as coarse-grained rocks.

c) HYPABYSSAL OR SUB VOLCANIC ROCKS:

Form at intermediate depths generally as dykes and sills and
so tend to be medium-grained.
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Classification of Igneous Rocks
• There are various ways of classifying igneous
rocks.

• The most significant are:-

(1) Mineralogical and chemical composition

(2) Rock texture (geological environment).

• Igneous rocks are either formed as Intrusive or

Extrusive Rocks.
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 Types of Igneous Rocks
Scientists have divided igneous rocks into two
broad categories based on where the molten rock
solidified.

(1) VOLCANIC OR EXTRUSIVE IGNEOUS ROCKS

Form when the magma cools and crystallizes on the
surface of the Earth.

(2) PLUTONIC OR INTRUSIVE IGNEOUS ROCKS

Where in the magma crystallizes at depth in the
Earth.
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Intrusive and extrusive igneous rock bodies

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 Rock Texture
• The most important distinction (charactreristics) in igneous rocks is
texture, which is related to the size and shape of the constituent
crystallite grains.

• Igneous rocks have distinctive textures, characterized mostly by

the interlocking grains that grow from cooling magma.

• In Igneous rocks, the cooling history and environment is the

function of the formation of textures.

• Magmas located deep within the Earth's crust cools slowly and
thus the individual minerals grains may grow.

• In contrast, lava extruded at the Earth's surface cools rapidly,

where mineral grains do not have time to grow, therefore cannot
be seen without the aid of a microscope. The rocks appear
massive and structureless.
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 Rock Texture
• Consist of:

1.Phaneritic texture
2.Aphanetic texture
3.Glassy texture
4.Porphyritic texture
5.Vesicular Texture

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 (1)Phaneritic texture
• Individual grains are large enough and
visible to naked eye.

• Grains approximately equal in size, form

interlocking mosaic and very coarse.

• Developed from magmas that cool slowly

and common in intrusive bodies.
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Examples of phaneritic rocks; phaneritic texture, consists of large grains
and can be seen unaided

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 (2) Aphanetic texture
• Individual crystals are so small and cannot
be seen unaided.

• Rocks are massive and experienced rapid

cooling that there was no sufficient time for
the growth of large crystals.

• Characteristic of volcanic rock and some

intrusive rocks which lost its heat to the
surrounding country rock.

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Aphanetic texture consists of grains too small to be seen without a
microscope

BASALT

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 (3) Glassy texture
• Similar to ordinary glass.

• Crystals cannot be discerned in a

glassy texture, even when the specimen
is viewed under high magnification e.g.
obsidian.

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A glassy texture develops when lava material cools very fast

Black is the most common color

of obsidian.

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 (4) Porphyritic texture
• Larger earlier formed crystals are enclosed
by a ground mass of smaller crystals.

• Cooling history of magma may begin slowly

initially which developed coarse crystals

• Then while partly crystallized the magma may

move to another environment in which the
cooling is more rapid which precipitate fine
crystals around the earlier coarse crystals.
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A hand sample and a thin section of porphyritic aphanitic textured rocks.
The porphyritic phaneritic texture results from two stages of cooling

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Andesite: Has a porphyritic texture.

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 Phenocrysts

Matrix/Ground mass
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 (5) Vesicular Texture
• This term refers to vesicles (holes, pores, or cavities)
within the igneous rock.

• Vesicles result from gas expansion (bubbles), which

often occurs during volcanic eruptions.

• Pumice and scoria are common types of vesicular rocks.

• The image below shows a basalt with vesicles, hence

the name "vesicular basalt".

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Vesicular rocks

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Pumice

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Scoria

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 Summary of Igneous Rocks
Structures
Mode of
Rock Types Rock Textures
formation

EXTRUSIVE Lavas Glassy or fine-grained

Minor Fine to moderately

Intrusions coarse-texture
INTRUSIVE
Major
Coarsely crystalline
Intrusions

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 Chemical and Mineralogical Composition
• Rocks that are rich in silica are called silicic or felsic (Acid), rocks and
those that are low in silica content are called mafic rocks (Basic).

• Color provides a valuable clue for identification igneous rocks because

the silicic rocks are mainly composed of lightly colored minerals like
quartz and feldspar, whereas the mafic rocks are dark colored because
of the abundance ferromagnesian minerals. The dark colored
ferromagnesian minerals are rich in iron and magnesium, include olivine,
pyroxene and hornblende.

• The major igneous rock types fall into categories of high, intermediate and
low silica content.

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 Minerology of Igneous Rock
Felsic/Light
colour Mafic/Dark colour
ULTRA
ACID BASIC (45
INTERMEDIATE BASIC (< 45%
(>63% silica) – 55%)
silica)

Crystalline Feldspar
Texture Orthoclase - Plagioclase

Extrusive Fine Rhyolite Trachyte Andesite Basalt Ultrabasic

lavas
(Usual Medium Microgranite Microsyenite Microdiorite Dolerite Peridotite
Occurrence) porphyry
Coarse Granite Syenite Diorite Gabbro Peridotite
Intrusive

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 Formation of Igneous Rocks
(a) Intrusive Processes:

• Intrusive rocks which cool and solidify under pressure and at great depths
are usually wholly crystalline in texture, since the conditions of cooling
are conducive to crystal formation.

• Such rocks occur in masses of great extent, often going to unknown

depths.

• Although originally formed deep underground, intrusive rocks are now

widely exposed because of earth movement and erosion processes.

• Intrusion refers to the movement of magma from a magma chamber to

a different subsurface location.

• Bodies of rock formed by the intrusive magma are called plutons.

• Rocks that make up plutons usually have phaneritic texture because the
cooling time was sufficient to allow the formation of large crystals.
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44
 Types of Plutons
• Plutons differ in terms of size, shape and relationship to
the rocks that were intruded by the magma, which are
older rocks known as country rocks.

• Common ones are:

https://youtu.be/uIQTfnJg_aA
(a) Dykes
(b) Sills
(c) Laccoliths
(d) Batholiths

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DIKE AND SILL FORMATION

https://youtu.be/6loGYTCBVqo

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 Dykes
• Tabular or wall like
mass.

• Results from magma

injected into cracks
and joints in rocks.

• Vary in width from a few

cm to a few meters but
not more than 3 meters
wide.

• Largest known dyke in

Zimbabwe, Africa which
is 600 km long and
Magnificent volcanic dike outside La Palma,
average width of 10 km. Canary Islands 47
 Sills
• Rising magma follows path of least resistance
such as bedding plane, which separates
layers of sedimentary rock.

• Magma injected between the layers form

tabular intrusive body parallel to layering.

• Sills range from few centimeters to hundreds

of meters thick and can extend to several
kilometers.

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 Laccoliths
• Viscous magma injected between layers of
sedimentary rock, tend to uparched the
overlying strata forming mushroom shaped.

• Usually thicker in center and thinner near

margin and may give rise to dome shaped hill.

• Can be several kilometers in diameter and

thousands of meters thick and typically
porphyritic.

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https://youtu.be/6loGYTCBVqo
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 Batholiths
• Largest rock bodies in the Earth's
crust, generally granitic composition.

• Cover several thousand square kilometers

and may be 60 km thick.

• Typically form in the deeper zones of

mountain belts and are exposed only
after considerable uplift and erosion.
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Types of plutons

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 Extrusive Processes
• Extrusive rocks are formed from the violent eruption
of volcanoes, fissures or cracks in the earth's
cracks.

• Some materials will be emitted with gaseous

extrusions into the atmosphere, where they will cool
quickly and eventually fall to the earth's surface as
volcanic ash and dust.

• The main product of volcanic action is a lava flow

emitted from within the earth as a molten stream which
flows over surface of the existing ground until it
solidifies.

• Extrusive rocks are generally distinguished by their usual

fine-grained texture. 53
 Examples of Igneous rock
• Granite

• Basalt

• Gabbro

• Diorite

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 Granite (Intrusive)
• Granite characterized by a granular texture, has
feldspar and quartz (at least 20%) as its two most
abundant minerals.

• In consequence most granite is light-coloured, Biotite

or hornblende or both are also present in most granite
with accessory apatite, magnetite and sphene.

• Granites can be fine, medium or coarse-grained

depending on grain sizes of the essential minerals and
porphyritic or non porphyritic depending on the absence
or presence of phenocrysts (usually alkali feldspar)
and/or muscovite.

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Colour differ based on the mineral.

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57
 Basalt (Extrusive)
• Basalt is dark coloured (black to medium grey),
fine grained (aphanitic) igneous rock.

• Composed of plagioclase, feldspar, pyroxene

and magnetite with or without olivine and contain
more than 53% by weight of SiO2.

• Most basalts are non porphyritic but some

contain phenocrysts of plagioclase, olivine and
pyroxene.

• Basalt is the world's most abundant lava and is

very widespread. 58
 Basalt

Pillow basalts on the south Pacific

An active basalt lava flow seafloor
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 Crystallization of Magma
• Crystallization of magma is not a simple process.

• An experiment done by N.L.Bowen (Figure 3.6) in early 1900s

demonstrated that minerals crystallize sequentially as the
temperature drops in a silicate magma and that solid crystals
can react with the liquid phase of the magma to form new
minerals during the crystallization process.

• To explain crystallization process, assuming that initially we have a

basaltic composition at about 1500°C.

• As temperature is slightly lowered, crystals begin to separate

from the liquid.

• There are two crystallization sequences that are observed as the

melt cools.

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 First sequence - crystallization of plagioclase
• This is solid-solution series between calcium-rich and
sodium­rich compositions.

• The first plagioclase crystals to form are higher in

calcium content than the calcium content of the liquid
phase.

• As the mixture continues to cool, the crystals that form

have progressively less calcium and more sodium than
the original plagioclase crystals.

• The crystallization of plagioclase follows what is called a

continuous reaction series, in which the liquid and the
crystals continuously change in composition until no
liquid remains.
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 Second sequence - crystallization of ferromagnesian mineral

• The ferromagnesian minerals follow a second type of crystallization sequence.

• In this series, olivine is the first ferromagnesian mineral to crystallize.

• As the temperature decreases, no change in the olivine crystals occurs until a

critical temperature is reached.

• At this point, augite rather than olivine begins to crystallize and the early-formed
olivine crystals react with the liquid to form augite.

• These reactions are different from the continuous reaction of plagioclase

because entirely new minerals with different internal structures form at specific
temperatures.

• For this reason the ferromagnesian crystallization sequence is called a

discontinuous reaction series.

• The same type of reaction occurs between augite and liquid to form hornblende
at a lower temperature.

• The entire sequence of mineral crystallization is known as Bowen's Reaction

Series. 62
63
 Experiment lava with water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XgpYXVN-Kk

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