Classification of Rocks

Lecture-3
1.Basic Igneous rocks Like Gabbro, Dolerite, Basalt.
2.Study of Conglomerate, Breccia, Sandstone,
Mudstone and Shale,
3.Important Distinguishing features of rocks as Rock
cleavage, Schistosity, Foliation.
4.. Study of Gneiss, Schist, Slate with engineering
consideration
Summary
 Gabbro
 Gabbro is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock
formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma
into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface.
 Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is chemically equivalent to
rapid-cooling, fine-grained basalt.
 Much of the Earth's oceanic crust is made of gabbro, formed at mid-
ocean ridges.
 Gabbro is also found as plutons associated with continental
volcanism.
 Due to its variant nature, the term gabbro may be applied loosely to
a wide range of intrusive rocks, many of which are merely "gabbroic".
By rough analogy, gabbro is to basalt as granite is to rhyolite.
 Gabbro Petrology
 Gabbro is dense, greenish or dark-colored and contains
pyroxene, plagioclase, and minor amounts of amphibole and
olivine.
 The pyroxene content is mostly clinopyroxene, generally augite,
but small amounts of orthopyroxene may also be present. If the
amount of orthopyroxene is more than 95% of the total pyroxene
content (5% or less clinopyroxene content), then the rock is
termed norite.
 On the other hand, gabbro has more than 95% of its pyroxenes in
the form of the monoclinic clinopyroxene/s.
 Intermediate rocks are termed gabbro-norite. The calcium-rich
plagioclase feldspar (labradorite-bytownite) and pyroxene
content vary between 10 and 90% in gabbro
 Gabbro Uses

Gabbro often contains valuable amounts of

chromium, nickel, cobalt, gold, silver, platinum,
and copper sulfides.

Orbicular varieties of gabbro can be used as

ornamental facing stones, paving stones and it is
also known by the trade name of black granite. It
is also used for kitchen countertops.
 Dolerite

Dolerite is also called Diabase is a mafic, holocrystalline,

subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic
gabbro. Dolerite dikes and sills are typically shallow
intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine grained to aphanitic
chilled margins which may contain tachylite (dark mafic
glass).
Diabase is the preferred name in North America, while
dolerite is the preferred name in the rest of the English-
speaking world, where sometimes the name diabase is
applied to altered dolerites and basalts.
Some geologists prefer the name microgabbro to avoid this
confusion.
 Dolerite Petrology
Dolorite/Diabase normally has a fine but visible texture of
euhedral lath-shaped plagioclase crystals (62%) set in a finer
matrix of clinopyroxene, typically augite (20–29%), with minor
olivine (3% up to 12% in olivine diabase), magnetite (2%), and
ilmenite (2%).
Accessory and alteration minerals include hornblende, biotite,
apatite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, serpentine, chlorite, and
calcite.
The texture is termed diabasic and is typical of diabases. This
diabasic texture is also termed interstitial.
The feldspar is high in anorthite (as opposed to albite), the
calcium endmember of the plagioclase anorthite-albite solid
solution series, most commonly labradorite.
 Dolerite uses
Dolerite is crushed and used as a construction aggregate for
road beds, buildings, railroad beds (rail ballast), and within
dams and levees.
can be cut for use as headstones and memorials.
Diabase also serves as local building stone.
The Blackbird (violin) is made of black Dolerite.
 Basalt
Geologists classify igneous rock by its mineral content whenever possible,
with the relative volume percentages of quartz, alkali feldspar, plagioclase,
and feldspathoid (QAPF) being particularly important.
It is often not practical to determine the mineral composition of volcanic
rocks, due to their very fine grain size, and geologists then classify the rocks
chemically, with the total content of alkali metal oxides and silica (TAS)
being particularly important.
Basalt is then defined as volcanic rock with a content of 45% to 52% silica
and not more than 5% alkali metal oxides. This places basalt in the B field of
the TAS diagram.[Such a composition is described as mafic.
Basalt is usually dark grey to black in colour, due to its high content of
augite or other dark-coloured pyroxene minerals, but can exhibit a wide
range of shading. Some basalts are quite light-coloured due to a high
content of plagioclase.
The physical properties of basalt reflect its relatively low silica content and
typically high iron and magnesium content. The average density of basalt is
2.9 g/cm3, compared with a typical density for granite of 2.7 g/cm3
 Basalt Petrology & Uses
The mineralogy of basalt is characterized by a preponderance of
calcic plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene.
Olivine can also be a significant constituent
Accessory minerals present in relatively minor amounts include
iron oxides and iron-titanium oxides, such as magnetite, and
ilmenite.
Because of the presence of such oxide minerals, basalt can
acquire strong magnetic signatures as it cools, and
paleomagnetic studies have made extensive use of basalt.
Basalt is used in construction (e.g. as building blocks or in
the groundwork), making cobblestones (from columnar
basalt) and in making statues. Heating and extruding
basalt yields stone wool, said to be an excellent thermal
insulator.
 Conglomerate
Conglomerate is a clastic sedimentary rock that is
composed of a substantial fraction of rounded to
subangular gravel-size clasts. A conglomerate typically
contain a matrix of finer grained sediments, such as
sand, silt, or clay, which fills the interstices between
the clasts. The clasts and matrix are typically cemented
by calcium carbonate, iron oxide, silica, or hardened
clay.
Conglomerates form by the consolidation and
lithification of gravel. They can be found in sedimentary
rock sequences of all ages but probably make up less
than 1 percent by weight of all sedimentary rocks. In
terms of origin and depositional mechanisms, they are
closely related to sandstones and exhibit many of the
same types of sedimentary structures, e.g., tabular and
trough cross-bedding and graded bedding
 Breccia
Breccia is a sedimentary rock composed of broken
fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a
fine-grained matrix that can be similar to or different
from the composition of the fragments.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which
it means "rubble".
A breccia may have a variety of different origins, as
indicated by the named types including sedimentary
breccia, tectonic breccia, igneous breccia, impact
breccia, and hydrothermal breccia.
A megabreccia is a breccia composed of very large rock
fragments, sometimes kilometers across, which can be
formed by landslides, impact events, or caldera
collapse.
 Sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-
sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about
20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates)
because they are the most resistant minerals to weathering
processes at the Earth's surface.
Sandstone may be any color due to impurities within the minerals,
but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey,
pink, white, and black.
Sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other
topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been
strongly identified with certain regions.
Rock formations that are primarily composed of sandstone usually
allow the percolation of water and other fluids and are porous
enough to store large quantities, making them valuable aquifers
and petroleum reservoirs.
 Mudstone
Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock
whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is
distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).

The term mudstone is also used to describe carbonate rocks

(limestone or dolomite) that are composed predominantly of
carbonate mud.
However, in most contexts, the term refers to siliciclastic
mudstone, composed mostly of silicate minerals.
 Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock, formed from
mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments
(silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especially quartz and
calcite.
Shale is characterized by its tendency to split into thin layers
(laminae) less than one centimeter in thickness. This property is
called fissility.
Shale is the most common sedimentary rock.
The term shale is sometimes applied more broadly, as essentially
a synonym for mudrock, rather than in the more narrow sense of
clay-rich fissile mudrock.
Cleavage
 Cleavage, in structural geology and petrology, describes a type
of planar rock feature that develops as a result of deformation
and metamorphism.
 The degree of deformation and metamorphism along with rock
type determines the kind of cleavage feature that develops.
Generally these structures are formed in fine grained rocks
composed of minerals affected by pressure solution.
 Cleavage is a type of rock foliation, a fabric element that
describes the way planar features develop in a rock.
 Foliation is separated into two groups: primary and secondary.
Primary deals with igneous and sedimentary rocks while
secondary deals with rocks that undergo metamorphism as a
result of deformation. Cleavage is a type of secondary foliation
associated with fine grained rocks. For coarser grained rocks,
schistosity is used to describe secondary foliation.
Continuous cleavage
Metamorphosed shale depicting slaty cleavage. Note the grains of mica, quartz, and ilmenite aligned with a preferred orientation.
Continuous or penetrative cleavage describes fine grained rocks consisting of platy minerals evenly distributed in a preferred
orientation. The type of continuous cleavage that forms depends on the minerals present. Undeformed platy minerals such as micas
and amphiboles align in a preferred orientation, and minerals such as quartz or calcite deform into a grain shape preferred
orientation. Continuous cleavage is scale dependent, so a rock with a continuous cleavage on a microscopic level could show signs of
spaced cleavage when observed on a macroscopic level.
Slaty cleavage
Since the nature of cleavage is dependent on scale, slaty cleavage is defined as having 0.01 mm or less of space occurring between
layers. Slaty cleavage often occurs after diagenesis and is the first cleavage feature to form after deformation begins. The tectonic
strain must be enough to allow a new strong foliation to form, i.e. slaty cleavage.
Spaced cleavage
A thin section depicting spaced cleavage. The cleavage domains are darker biotite grains, and the microlithons between consist of
mostly muscovite and quartz. The grains in the microlithons are starting to align in a preferred orientation. A new foliation
overprinted an old, showing the beginning signs of a crenulation cleavage.
Spaced Cleavage occurs in rocks with minerals that are not evenly distributed and as a result the rock forms discontinuous layers or
lenses of different types of minerals
Schistosity
Schistosity, mode of foliation that occurs in certain metamorphic
rocks as a consequence of the parallel alignment of platy and lath-
shaped mineral constituents. It reflects a considerable intensity of
metamorphism—i.e., changes resulting from high temperatures,
pressures, and deformation.
Foliation and Lineation

An example of foliation WITH

lineation. (Source: Peter Davis)

Foliation is a term used that describes minerals lined up in planes. Certain minerals, most notably the
mica group, are mostly thin and planar by default. Foliated rocks typically appear as if the minerals are
stacked like pages of a book, thus the use of the term ‘folia’, like a leaf.
Other minerals, with hornblende being a good example, are longer in one direction, linear like a pencil or
a needle, rather than a planar-shaped book. These linear objects can also be aligned within a rock. This is
referred to as a lineation.
Linear crystals, such as hornblende, tourmaline, or stretched quartz grains, can be arranged as part of a
foliation, a lineation, or foliation/lineation together. If they lie on a plane with mica, but with no common
or preferred direction, this is foliation. If the minerals line up and point in a common direction, but with
no planar fabric, this is lineation. When minerals lie on a plane AND point in a common direction; this is
both foliation and lineation.
Foliation and Lineation

An example of
foliation WITHOUT
lineation. (Source:
Peter Davis)