What type of rock is a mafic rock?
igneous rock
mafic rock, in geology, igneous rock that is dominated by the silicates pyroxene, amphibole, olivine, and mica. These minerals are high in magnesium and ferric oxides, and their presence gives mafic rock its characteristic dark colour.
What is an example of a mafic rock?
Common mafic rocks include basalt, diabase and gabbro.
What are mafic and felsic rocks?
Mafic rocks are rich in the heavy minerals, iron and magnesium. This gives these rocks their characteristic dark green or greenish-black colour. Whereas, felsic rocks are rich in silica and aluminium along with oxygen, sodium and potassium that gives the light shade for these rocks.
What makes rocks mafic?
Mafic Minerals and Rocks The term mafic is derived from a combination of magnesium and ferric (ferric is from the Latin word for iron). Mafic was originally reserved to describe minerals that had a high percentage of iron and magnesium.
Where do mafic igneous rocks form?
Mafic rocks that constitute the igneous oceanic crust are created at mid-ocean ridge seafloor spreading centers as a byproduct of partial melt from upwelling mantle. Through various parts of the spreading process, permeability can be generated in both the intrusive gabbros and extrusive basalts.
What is mafic crust?
The outermost layer of the earth, the crust , consists of two basic types of crust, one primarily mafic (oceanic crust) and the other primarily silicic (continental crust). Oceanic crust, which is only about 4 miles (6 km) thick, consists mostly of basalt , a mafic rock.
Is quartz felsic or mafic?
Felsic minerals are usually light in color and have specific gravities less than 3.0. Common felsic minerals include quartz, muscovite mica, and the orthoclase feldspars. The most common felsic rock is granite, which represents the purified end product of the earth’s internal differentiation process.
What is the difference felsic and mafic?
Either in describing rocks or lava, mafic means that the lava or rock has less silica while felsic implies that the lava or rock has the most silica. 6. Mafic rocks are darker in color than felsic rocks.
How are mafic igneous rocks formed?
What is a plutonic mafic igneous rock?
Igneous plutonic (or intrusive) rocks are those which have formed deep underground as magma cooled slowly over thousands of years following their emplacement. Such rocks have visible crystals (phaneritic texture).