The Granite Rock Cycle

This mineral composition usually gives granite a red pink gray or white color with dark mineral grains visible throughout the rock.

The granite rock cycle. Granite is formed during the first part of the rock cycle the cooling of magma either on the surface of the earth s crust or below ground. Granite is an intrusive igneous rock which is widely distributed throughout earth s crust at a range of depths up to 31 mi 50 km. This transition from high pressure and temperature to atmospheric temperature and pressure can cause the granite to slightly expand and crack. Granite is composed mainly of quartz and feldspar with minor amounts of mica amphiboles and other minerals.

The rock cycle is earth s great recycling process where igneous metamorphic and sedimentary rocks can all be derived from and form one another. Granite contains long and platy minerals that are not initially aligned but when enough pressure is added those minerals shift to all point in the same. An example of this transformation can be seen with granite an igneous rock. Granite s characteristic grainy structure and strength is the result of many individual crystalline structures which form tightly together as magma slowly cools within large deeply buried rock bodies known as.

Lc geography core chapter 5 the rock cycle 30 terms. Dublin region tertiary economic activities. It forms from the slow crystallization of magma below earth s surface. Granite rock forms intrusive structures such as the.

They can even be re melted to form new igneous rocks. Concrete building materials contracting construction services. Spanish vocab 2 115 terms. Of course the granite we see today is near surface and thus at some point was uplifted causing overlying sediment to be shed via erosion.

Other sets by this creator. The granite pictured above is an example of this type of rock formation. To find out about how these changes take place return to the rock cycle.