IGNEOUS ROCK

Tuff: An igneous rock that contains

the debris from an explosive volcanic
eruption. It often contains fragments
of bedrock, tephra, and volcanic ash.
The specimen shown here is about
two inches (five centimeters) across.

Tuff is an igneous rock that forms from

the products of an explosive volcanic
eruption. In these eruptions, the
volcano blasts rock, ash, magma and
other materials from its vent. This
ejecta travels through the air and falls
back to Earth in the area surrounding
the volcano. If the ejected material is compacted and cemented into a rock, that rock will be called "tuff."

Tuff is usually thickest near the volcanic vent and decreases in thickness with distance from the volcano.
Instead of being a "layer," a tuff is usually a "lens-shaped" deposit. Tuff can also be thickest on the
downwind side of the vent or on the side of the vent where the blast was directed.

Some tuff deposits are hundreds of meters thick and have a total eruptive volume of many cubic miles.
That enormous thickness can be from a single eruptive blast or, more commonly, from successive surges
of a single eruption - or eruptions that were separated by long periods of time.

Tuff Rings

A "tuff ring" is a small volcanic cone of low relief that surrounds a shallow crater. These craters, known as
maars, are formed by explosions caused by hot magma coming in contact with cold groundwater. The
explosion blasts fragments of bedrock, tephra, and ash from the crater. The tuff ring forms as these
ejected materials fall back to Earth. Tuff rings range in size from several hundred meters across to several
thousand meters. They are typically less than a few hundred meters in height and have a very gentle slope
of less than ten degrees.

Tuff

Tuff: Close-up of a piece of tuff exposed at Hole-in-the-Wall, Mojave National Preserve, California. This
specimen clearly displays the diversity of materials that compose a tuff. Public domain image by Mark A.
Wilson, Department of Geology, The College of Wooster.

Welded Tuff

Sometimes the ejecta is hot enough when it lands that the particles are soft and sticky. These materials
"weld" together upon impact or upon compaction. The rock formed from this hot ejecta is known as a
"welded tuff" - because the ejected particles are welded together. Some deposits might contain welded
tuff near the vent and unwelded tuff at a distance where smaller, cooler particles fell to the ground.

Ettringer tuff

Ettringer tuff: Close-up of a specimen of Ettringer Tuff showing a variety of rock fragments and tephra in
a matrix of volcanic ash. Public domain image by Roll-Stone of Wikimedia.

Many Types of Tuff

"Tuff" is a name that is used for a broad range of materials. The only requirement is that the materials are
ejecta produced by a volcanic eruption. Tuff can contain fragments of dust-size particles to boulder-size
particles and be composed of many different types of material.
IGNEOUS ROCK
Scoria: A piece of scoria about 4 inches
(10 centimeters) in diameter. A
specimen with a rounded shape like
this was most likely blown from a
volcanic vent. This photograph was
taken by Jonathan Zander and is used
under a GNU Free Documentation
License.

Scoria is a dark-colored igneous rock

with abundant round bubble-like
cavities known as vesicles. It ranges in
color from black or dark gray to deep
reddish brown. Scoria usually has a
composition similar to basalt, but it can also have a composition similar to andesite.

Many people believe that small pieces of scoria look like the ash produced in a coal furnace. That has
resulted in particles of scoria being called "cinders" and the small volcanoes that erupt scoria to be called
"cinder cones."

How Does Scoria Form?

Scoria forms when magma containing abundant dissolved gas flows from a volcano or is blown out during
an eruption. As the molten rock emerges from the Earth, the pressure upon it is reduced and the dissolved
gas starts to escape in the form of bubbles. If the molten rock solidifies before the gas has escaped, the
bubbles become small rounded or elongated cavities in the rock. This dark-colored igneous rock with the
trapped bubbles is known as scoria.

When some volcanoes erupt, a rush of gas blows out of the vent. This gas was once dissolved in the magma
below. The gas often blows out small bodies of magma that solidify as they fly through the air. This action
can produce a ground cover of scoria all around the volcanic vent, with the heaviest deposits on the
downwind side.

Small particles of scoria that litter the landscape around the volcano are known as "lapilli" if they are
between 2 millimeters and 64 millimeters in size. Larger particles are known as "blocks."

Cinder Cones

Most of the scoria falls to the ground near the vent to build up a cone-shaped hill called a "cinder cone."
Cinder cones are generally small volcanoes produced by brief eruptions with a total vertical relief of less
than a few thousand feet. They are usually very steep because scoria has an angle of repose of 30 to 40
degrees. In some parts of the world, cinder cones occur in clusters of a few to hundreds of individual
cones. These areas are called "volcano fields." An example of a volcano field is the San Francisco Peaks
Volcanic Field near Flagstaff, Arizona, which contains over 500 cinder cones.

Lava Flows and Vesicular Basalts

Some newly erupted lava flows contain abundant dissolved gas. The gas bubbles in the flow move upwards
towards the surface in an attempt to escape while the lava is still molten. However, once the lava starts
to solidify, the bubbles are trapped in the rock. These trapped gas bubbles are known as vesicles. If the
upper portion of a lava flow contains a large concentration of vesicles, it is often called "scoria" or
"vesicular basalt." This material often has fewer vesicles and a higher specific gravity than the scoria of
lapilli.
METAMORPHIC ROCK
Quartzite: A specimen of quartzite
showing its conchoidal fracture and
granular texture. The specimen shown
is about two inches (five centimeters)
across.

Quartzite is a nonfoliated metamorphic

rock composed almost entirely of
quartz. It forms when a quartz-rich
sandstone is altered by the heat,
pressure, and chemical activity of
metamorphism. These conditions
recrystallize the sand grains and the
silica cement that binds them together.
The result is a network of interlocking quartz grains of incredible strength.

The interlocking crystalline structure of quartzite makes it a hard, tough, durable rock. It is so tough that
it breaks through the quartz grains rather than breaking along the boundaries between them. This is a
characteristic that separates true quartzite from sandstone.

Physical Properties of Quartzite

Quartzite is usually white to gray in color. Some rock units that are stained by iron can be pink, red, or
purple. Other impurities can cause quartzite to be yellow, orange, brown, green, or blue.

The quartz content of quartzite gives it a hardness of about seven on the Mohs Hardness Scale. Its extreme
toughness made it a favorite rock for use as an impact tool by early people. Its conchoidal fracture allowed
it to be shaped into large cutting tools such as ax heads and scrapers. Its coarse texture made it less
suitable for producing tools with fine edges such as knife blades and projectile points.

Where Does Quartzite Form?

Most quartzite forms during mountain-building events at convergent plate boundaries. There, sandstone
is metamorphosed into quartzite while deeply buried. Compressional forces at the plate boundary fold
and fault the rocks and thicken the crust into a mountain range. Quartzite is an important rock type in
folded mountain ranges throughout the world.

Quartzite is also a poor soil-former. Unlike feldspars which break down to form clay minerals, the
weathering debris of quartzite is quartz. It is therefore not a rock type that contributes well to soil
formation. For that reason it is often found as exposed bedrock with little or no soil cover.

How the Name "Quartzite" Is Used

Geologists have used the name "quartzite" in a few different ways, each with a slightly different meaning.
Today most geologists who use the word "quartzite" are referring to rocks that they believe are
metamorphic and composed almost entirely of quartz.

A few geologists use the word "quartzite" for sedimentary rocks that have an exceptionally high quartz
content. This usage is falling out of favor but remains in older textbooks and other older publications. The
name "quartz arenite" is a more appropriate and less confusing name for these rocks.

It is often difficult or impossible to differentiate quartz arenite from quartzite. The transition of sandstone
into quartzite is a gradual process. A single rock unit such as the Tuscarora Sandstone might fully fit the
definition of quartzite in some parts of its extent and be better called "sandstone" in other areas. Between
these areas, the names "quartzite" and "sandstone" are used inconsistently and often guided by habit. It
is often called "quartzite" when rock units above and below it are clearly sedimentary. This contributes to
the inconsistency in the ways that geologists use the word "quartzite."
METAMORPHIC ROCK
Novaculite: Specimen of novaculite
showing its fine-grained texture and
conchoidal fracture. Specimen is
approximately 3 inches across.

Novaculite is a dense, hard, fine-

grained siliceous rock that breaks with
a conchoidal fracture. It forms from
sediments deposited in marine
environments where organisms such as
diatoms (single-celled algae that
secrete a hard shell composed of
silicon dioxide) are abundant in the
water. When the diatoms die, their
silicon dioxide shells fall to the seafloor. In some areas these diatom shells are the primary ingredient of
the seafloor sediments.

During diagenesis (the transformation from sediment to rock) the silicon dioxide from the diatom shells
is transformed into chalcedony (a microcrystalline silicon dioxide). At this point the rock is chert. The chert
is transformed into novaculite as further diagenesis and low-grade metamorphism recrystallize the
chalcedony into microcrystalline quartz grains.

The two primary differences between chert and novaculite are: 1) chert is composed mainly of chalcedony
while novaculite is composed mainly of microcrystalline quartz grains; and, 2) chert is a sedimentary rock,
while novaculite is a chert that has experienced a higher level of diagenetic alteration and low-grade
metamorphism.

Novaculite Localities

The most famous locality for novaculite is where the Arkansas Novaculite Formation outcrops in the
Ouachita Mountains of central Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. It is a Devonian to Mississippian-
age rock unit that ranges from about 60 feet thick in the northern Ouachitas to about 900 feet thick in the
southern Ouachitas.

Outcrops of the Arkansas Novaculite Formation are prominent landscape features of the Ouachita
Mountains. Compared to most other types of rock, novaculite is very resistant to chemical and physical
weathering. This makes it a ridge-former and a cliff-former in the areas where it outcrops. Peaks, cliffs,
and ridges formed by novaculite are prominent landscape features of the Ouachitas.

First Use of Arkansas Novaculite

Native Americans were the first people to mine the Arkansas Novaculite Formation. They noticed its
conchoidal fracture and discovered that it could be knapped - just like flint - into projectile points,
scrapers, and cutting tools. They mined novaculite, used it to manufacture cutting tools and weapons, and
traded the material and products over a broad area. The Quapaw, Osage, Caddo, Tunica, Chickasaw, and
Natchez tribes were especially involved in the mining.

Prehistoric people in other parts of the world have worked novaculite deposits to manufacture weapons
and cutting tools. Novaculite and manufactured products from these areas were transported and traded
across great distances.

Arkansas “whetstones,” “oil stones,” and “sharpening stones” became world-famous for their ability to
produce a sharp edge on a metal blade. This created a demand for novaculite that was strong in the 1800s
but declined as people used fewer blades that required resharpening. In the early 1900s, demand declined
further as artificial abrasives and sharpening machines began to replace the sharpening stone. Although
sharpening stones made with synthetic abrasives are cost-competitive with novaculite and perform well,
a steady demand for novaculite still supports several producers of novaculite sharpening tools.
SEDIMENTARY ROCK
Sandstone: The specimen shown is
about two inches (five centimeters)
across.

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock

composed of sand-size grains of
mineral, rock, or organic material. It
also contains a cementing material that
binds the sand grains together and may
contain a matrix of silt- or clay-size
particles that occupy the spaces
between the sand grains.

Sandstone is one of the most common

types of sedimentary rock and is found in sedimentary basins throughout the world. It is often mined for
use as a construction material or as a raw material used in manufacturing. In the subsurface, sandstone
often serves as an aquifer for groundwater or as a reservoir for oil and natural gas.

What is Sand?

To a geologist, the word "sand" in sandstone refers to the particle size of the grains in the rock rather than
the material of which it is composed. Sand-size particles range in size from 1/16 millimeter to 2 millimeters
in diameter. Sandstones are rocks composed primarily of sand-size grains.

Weathering and Transport of Sand

The grains of sand in a sandstone are usually particles of mineral, rock, or organic material that have been
reduced to "sand" size by weathering and transported to their depositional site by the action of moving
water, wind, or ice. Their time and distance of transport may be brief or significant, and during that
journey the grains are acted upon by chemical and physical weathering.

If the sand is deposited close to its source rock, it will resemble the source rock in composition. However,
the more time and distance that separate the source rock from the sand deposit, the greater its
composition will change during transport. Grains that are composed of easily-weathered materials will be
modified, and grains that are physically weak will be reduced in size or destroyed.

If a granite outcrop is the source of the sand, the original material might be composed of grains of
hornblende, biotite, orthoclase, and quartz. Hornblende and biotite are the most chemically and
physically susceptible to destruction, and they would be eliminated in the early stage of transport.
Orthoclase and quartz would persist longer, but the grains of quartz would have the greatest chance of
survival. They are more chemically inert, harder, and not prone to cleavage. Quartz is typically the most
abundant type of sand grain present in sandstone. It is extremely abundant in source materials and is
extremely durable during transport.

Types of Sand Grains

The grains in a sandstone can be composed of mineral, rock, or organic materials. Which and in what
percentage depends upon their source and how they have suffered during transport.

Mineral grains in sandstones are usually quartz. Sometimes the quartz content of these sands can be very
high - up to 90% or more. These are sands that have been worked and reworked by wind or water and are
said to be "mature." Other sands can contain significant amounts of feldspar, and if they came from a
source rock with a significant quartz content they are said to be "immature."
SEDIMENTARY ROCK
Flint nodule: Flint is a variety of
microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline
quartz. It occurs as nodules and
concretionary masses, and less
frequently as a layered deposit. It
breaks consistently with a conchoidal
fracture and was one of the first
materials used to make tools by early
people. They used it to make cutting
tools. This specimen is about four
inches (ten centimeters) across and is
from Dover Cliffs, England.

Flint is a hard, tough chemical or

biochemical sedimentary rock that breaks with a conchoidal fracture. It is a form of microcrystalline quartz
that is typically called “chert” by geologists.

Flint often forms as nodules in sedimentary rocks such as chalk and marine limestones. The nodules can
be dispersed randomly throughout the rock unit but are often concentrated in distinct layers. Some rock
units form through the accumulation of siliceous skeletal material. These can recrystallize to form a layer
of bedded flint.

The Preferred Tool-Making Material

Flint has been used by humans to make stone tools for at least two million years. [1] The conchoidal
fracture of flint causes it to break into sharp-edged pieces. Early people recognized this property of flint
and learned how to fashion it into knife blades, projectile points, scrapers, axes, drills, and other sharp
tools.

About 60 tons of flint could be removed from each of these pits and the short horizontal excavations that
followed the high-quality flint layer at the base. Starting about 3000 BC until about 1900 BC, these miners
built over 400 shafts over an area of about 100 acres and removed thousands of tons of flint. [6]

Although these mining operations were amazing feats of engineering, just as impressive was the
geological understanding of the workers. They knew that the flint was below the ground even though it
did not outcrop anywhere in the immediate area. They also knew that the highest quality flint layer was
below lower quality zones that were encountered during the early digging.

Flint as a Gemstone

Flint is a very durable material that accepts a bright polish and often occurs in attractive colors. It is
occasionally cut into cabochons, beads, and baroque shapes for use as a gemstone. It is also used to
produce tumbled stones in a rock tumbler.

Most people have heard of a gem material called "jasper". Jasper is an opaque variety of cryptocrystalline
quartz. It obtains its color and opacity from a large amount of included mineral particles. Flint and jasper
are similar materials and both are varieties of a gem material known as "chalcedony".

Flint as a Construction Material

Where flint is abundant it is sometimes used as a construction material. It is very durable and resists
weathering better than almost any other natural stone. It is common to see walls, homes, and larger
buildings that are built partially or entirely with flint as a facing stone in southern England and many parts
of Europe.