REFERENCE

IGNEOUS STRUCTURES AND FORMS

Extrusive Rocks are formed when molten rocks (magma) reaches the surface,along either wide vertical
fissures or pipe-like openings in the earth's crust.

Fissures Opening may vary from a fraction of a kilometer to several kilometer in length .
Table 2.14 Engineering properties of some unweathered igneous rock.

Specific Gravity Water Absorption Compressive

(%) strength (MN m-²)

Granite 2.6-2.7 0.3-0.8 100-240

Diorite 2.7-2.85 0.3-0.8 100-250
Plutonic Gabbro 2.75-3.0 0.1-0.3 100-250
Ultrabasic 2.8-3.3 0.1-1.5 75-300
Varieties

Hypabyssal Porphyry 2.6-2.7 0.2-1.0 100-350

Dolerite 2.7-2.9 0.1-0.7 120-300
Rhyolite 2.5-2.7 0.3-2.5 <100-280
Extrusive Andesite 2.6-2.8 0.2-2.0 <100-350
Basalt 2.7-2.9 0.1-1.0 150-300
Pipe-like openings on the surface give rise to a typical conical volcano,
such as
Vesuvius or Fujiyama, of the central-vent type. An arbitrary scale of
intensity of
volcanic eruptions from central-vent volcanoes has been suggested, and this
shows a variation from a quiet type, such as the Hawaiian volcanoes, to
violent
types, such as Vesuvius, Stromboli and Mont Pelée.
All central-vent volcanoes consist of volcanic cones which mark the magma
duct or vent. These are composed of layers of ash and lava, and they vary in the
steepness of their sides according to the composition of the lava and the amount
of ash and dust.
Volcanic Cones ex: Shield volcano, Strato Volcano, Cinder Cone.
The ash and dust ejected from central-vent volcanoes consist of small blobs of
lava blown apart by expanding volcanic gases as the magma neared the surface
and which chilled as they flew through the air. The collective term for this
ejected material is pyroclastic rock.
Pyroclastic Rock examples: Pumice, Scoria, and Cinders.
The dust and fine ash may settle on land or in water to form tuffs,
which may or may not show bedding.
Tuffs-are fine-grained, porous, crumbly (friable) rocks. And a
volcaniclastic rock composed of solid volcanic ash that may
contain particles of volcanic glass.
Sometimes the volcanic ash has been welded together by heat from the
eruption,and welded tuffs are formed.

Welded Tuffs -rock composed of fused volcanic ash and volcanic debris.

The coarser ash travels a short distance from the volcanic vent, and may
fall back into it. After consolidation it is called agglomerate (from the
latin word "Agglomerare" meaning "to form into a ball").
Welded Tuffs -rock composed of fused volcanic ash and volcanic debris.

The coarser ash travels a short distance from the volcanic vent, and may
fall back into it. After consolidation it is called agglomerate (from the
latin word "Agglomerare" meaning "to form into a ball").
Depending on their composition, lavas may have a rough broken surface
(scoriaceous lava) or a smooth wrinkled surface (ropy lava) when
extruded.Gas
bubbles (vesicles) are concentrated by buoyancy at the upper surface of a lava
flow while it is molten, and at the lower surface by its flow (Fig. 2.20). In
older
flows, such vesicles are usually filled with secondary minerals.If flows are
pouredout on land, they are subject to sub-aerial weathering until the next flow
is extruded and a soil rich in ferric iron (red bole) is formed.
 Lava - when magma flows or erupts onto Earth's surface.
INTRUSIVE ROCKS
Minor (hypabyssal) intrusions are relatively small igneous structures
formed from magma which has penetrated to the uppermost few
kilometres of the Earth’s crust, but has not reached the surface to be
poured out as lava. For example, when volcanic activity ceases, the
volcanic vent by which magma has travelled to the surface is choked with
once-molten rock which has solidified to form a medium-grained igneous
rock, together with any agglomerate that collapsed into the vent.
The body of mixed igneous rock, roughly circular in plan and anything
from about 100 m to a few kilometres across, is called a volcanic plug
(Fig. 2.25). It has near-vertical margins and extends down to the magma
reservoir from which it came. This might lie below the crust, but more
commonly the plug extends only to a major intrusion,originally at a
depth of 5–10 km below the surface.

Volcanic Plug or Volcanic Neck: is a volcanic object created when

magma hardens, within a vent on an active volcano.

Volcanic Plug ex: Strombolicchio, the northernmost of the Acolian

Islands, and Rockall, a small, uninhabited, remote islet in the North
Atlantic Ocean.
•The common hypabyssal intrusions (Fig. 2.25) are sheet-like in form, with widths usually between 1 and 70 m.
They are labelled according to whether or not they conform to thestructure of the strata in which they are
emplaced.
• A concordant hypabyssal intrusion injected along the layering in the
country rocks is called a sill.
• Sill -is a planar sheet of magma which is parallel to the surrounding
neck.
• Sill Example: Tabular mass of quarter trachyte found near the summit
of Engineer Mountain near Silverton, Colorado.
• A discordant hypabyssal intrusion cutting steeply across the layering
is called a dyke (Fig. 2.25).
• Dyke or Dikes -are the most efficient way to transport magma upward
within the crust.
• Dike are intrusions that are generally near-vertical and that cut through
pre-existing bedding planes or foliations within rocks.
• An intrusion (Fig. 2.25) consisting of several segments, mostly
concordant but at different levels in the column of strata and linked by
discordant segments, is called a transgressive sill.
• Transgressive Sill - Deposits their concordant nature, many
large sills change stratigraphic level within the intruded
sequence, with each concordant part of the intrusion
linked by relatively short dike-like segments.
 Table 2.15 The main field differences
between lava flows and sills
ITEM GRAIN SIZE THICKNESS
Variable from few meters
LAVA FLOW Matrix fine grained but to tens of meters.
variations may occur. Invariably the lava flow
will form part of a lava
pile (many flows).

Matrix medium fine Variables, usually tens of

SILL grained, depending on meters in depth. Sill
thickness of sill, with usually form distinct and
variation in grain size
from margin (finer)to quite separate intrusions
centre (coarser).
Thermal Lavas tend to heat the Both under- and over-
effects underlying rocks. lying rocks thermally affected.

Weathering Original upper surface A sill is not originally

of lava flows may be wea- exposed and red
thered (if extruded sub- boles do not occurs.
aerially) leading to the for-
mation of an oxidised skin
or bole on top. This is fre-
quently preserved by baking
effects from subsequent
overlying lavas.
Texture Vesicles are common both at Vesicles rare but occasion-
the top and at the bottom of a ally present- never prolific
lava flow. in lava flows.

The cooling joint present lava flows and sills are similar in orientation.
 A dyke rarely occurs in complete isolation from other igneous intrusions.Characteris-
tically, tens or hundreds of dykes occur as a dyke swarm within a linear zone, which is
usually tens of kilometres across.
Dyke Swarm -is a large geological structure consisting of a major
group of parallel, linear, or radially oriented magmatic dikes
intruded within continental crust or central volcanoes in rift zones.

A dyke swarm is sometimes related to a major centre of igneousactivity,

either by intersecting it, or by spreading out from it. The centre may be the site
of one or more major granite plutons.

Plutons -is any large igneous body that has congealed from magma
underground.

Large Plutonic Bodies: Batholiths, Pluton and Laccoliths.

A chilled margin the smallest intrusions of this class are often
mushroom-shaped, with a flat base and an upwards bulging
roof,
but other forms exist. The rocks are commonly acid or interme-
diate in composition, but basic and ultrabasic bodies of this
form also occur.
Plutonic sheet intrusions are of basic composition in
bulk,with A gradation from ultrabasic near the base to a small
amount of acid rock at the top. Sheets of this type are a few
kilometres thick,often downwarping the underlying original
rocks because of the weight of magma involved. The second
type of major plutonic intrusion is a great body of granodiorite
and granite called a batholith(Fig. 2.26).Batholiths are always
formed from acid magma, and are characteristic of late
igneous activity in mobile belts(see Section 4.6.1), where
mountain building is taking place.
The roof of a batholith may lie below the ground surface, and in that case the
only granite outcrops are those of smaller intrusions (commonly between 5
and 10 km across), which rise above the main batholith as stocks (Fig. 2.26).
Stocks - are igneous rocks that have an exposed surface that is less than 100
square kilometers.
• Stocks are differ from batholiths because stocks are smaller than
batholiths.
The margins of a batholith usually dip outwards at a steep angle. Close to
them the granite often contains blocks of country rock(xenoliths), which
have been broken off during the rise of the acid magma. Xenoliths vary from
a few centimetres to tens of metresacross. Xenoliths are fragments of the
mantle brought to earth's surface during volcanic eruption.
Heat from the crystallising magma affects a zone of country rocks
surrounding the intrusion. This zone is called a thermal aureole, and it,
and the effects of heat on country rocks (thermal metamorphism), are
described fully in Section 2.2.5.

Veins - ore body that is disseminated within definite boundaries in

unwanted rock or minerals ( gangue).
In some regions, hot water with lead, zinc, silver, tin and
othereconomic metals in solution forms hydrothermal veins
containing ore minerals around the granite.
Ore minerals - the naturally occurring material from which a
material or minerals of economic value can be extracted.

Those such as cassiterite (tin oxide), which come out of solution at

high temperature, are deposited close to, or within, the granite. Those
precipitated at lower temperatures, such as galena (lead sulphide), are
deposited further away.
Cassiterite - is a tin oxide mineral SnO2. It is generally opaque, but it
is translucent in thin crystals.

The temperatures of formation of hydrothermal ore deposits are in the

following ranges: 300–500°C for hypothermal deposits (cassiterite,
arsenic compounds, pyrite and other iron sulphides); 200–300°C for
mesothermal deposits (lead, zinc, copper, silver and gold); and 50–
200°C for epithermal deposits (antimony and mercury deposits, and
silver and gold compounds).
Hydrothermal ore deposit is one in which the ore minerals
were precipitated from aqueous high-temperature fluid
solutions, where: Aqueous implies that the solvent is
water.Hydrothermal deposits are accumulations of valuable
minerals which formed from hot waters circulating in Earth's
crust through fractures. They eventually create metallic-rich
fluids concentrated in a selected volume of rock, which become
supersaturated and then precipitate ore minerals.
Mesothermal Deposits - A mineral deposit formed at
moderate temperature and pressure, in and along fissures or
other openings in rocks, by deposition at intermediate depths,
from hydrothermal fluids.

Epithermal Deposits - structure at shallow depths under

extraordinarily low temperatures and pressures.