Rhyolites And Granites

However the abundances of critical trace.

Rhyolites and granites.

One is intrusive and the other is extrusive. Rhyolite is a silica rich igneous rock found throughout the world. So if we assume the above to be true then the only difference between the rocks is that one is plutonic and the other is volcanic. So i m going to make a general comment and say that a granite is genetically the same has the same composition as a rhyolite.

Granite is a very hard granular crystalline igneous rock which consists mainly of quartz mica and feldspar and is often used as building stone. Rhyolite can be considered as the extrusive equivalent to the plutonic granite rock and consequently outcrops of rhyolite may bear a resemblance to granite. The trace element contents of granites and their volcanic equivalents rhyolites are highly variable more so than basalts largely because of the effect of small amounts of accessory phases such as zircon monazite allanite and titanite both in their source regions and during granite crystallization. Rhyolite extrusive igneous rock that is the volcanic equivalent of granite most rhyolites are porphyritic indicating that crystallization began prior to extrusion.

The cambrian southern oklahoma aulacogen soa exposes shallow seated a type sheet granites emplaced on top of layered mafic bodies and under cover of a type rhyolites this gabbro rhyolite boundary being a crustal magma trap. Granites and rhyolites appear to overlap in age although rhyolites built up first with the rhyolite pile thickening as later granites coarsened texturally to medium. Due to their high content of silica and low iron and magnesium contents rhyolitic magmas form highly viscous lavas they also occur as breccias or in volcanic plugs and dikes rhyolites that cool too quickly to grow crystals form a. Please don t take this as always true but it is a close enough estimate in most cases.

Rhyolite is a fine grained igneous rock which is rich in silica. Crystallization may sometimes have begun while the magma was deeply buried. The rock received its name from german geologist ferdinand von richthofen better known as the red baron a world war i flying ace the word rhyolite comes from the greek word rhýax a stream of lava with the suffix ite given to rocks.