Igneous Rock

 Occurrence
 Properties
 Distribution
01
Intrusive
Igneous Rocks
 Granite
• Granite is a light-colored plutonic rock found
throughout the continental crust, most
commonly in mountainous areas.

• They formed as magma cooled many

kilometers below the Earth's surface.

• It is hard and durable enough to resist abrasion

and bear significant weight.
Syenite
• Chemically, syenites contain a moderate
amount of silica, relatively large amounts of
alkalies, and alumina.
• This rock mainly consists of ferromagnesian
minerals and alkali feldspar & has a coarse-
grained texture because magma cools slowly
inside. It is not considered as a common rock
and thus can be found in some regions such as
the Kola Peninsula of Russia, New England &
Newyork of North America and nearly all of
the states of Australia, and many other regions.
Diorite
• Diorite is the name used for a group of coarse-
grained igneous rocks with a composition
between that of granite and basalt. It usually
occurs as large intrusions, dikes, and sills
within continental crust. These often form
above a convergent plate boundary where an
oceanic plate subducts beneath a continental
plate.

• It is found in volcanic arcs, and in cordilleran

mountain building, such as in the Andes
Mountains.
 Gabbro
• Gabbro is a dense, mafic intrusive rock. It
generally occurs as batholiths and laccoliths
and is often found along mid-ocean ridges or
in ancient mountains composed of compressed
and uplifted oceanic crust.

• Gabbro is a coarse-grained (phaneritic)

igneous rock that is relatively low in silica and
rich in iron, magnesium, and calcium.
Pegmatite
• PEGMATITE is a common plutonic rock, of
variable texture and coarseness, that is
composed of interlocking crystals of widely
different sizes.

• Pegmatite is found in all over the world. They

are most abundant old rocks.

• Worldwide, notable pegmatite occurrences are

within the major cratons, and within
greenschist-facies metamorphic belts.
 Dolerite
• Diabase, also called Dolerite, fine- to medium-
grained, dark gray to black intrusive igneous
rock. It is extremely hard and tough and is
commonly quarried for crushed stone, under
the name of trap.
• Diorite is an intrusive rock intermediate in
composition between gabbro and granite. It is
produced in volcanic arcs, and in mountain
building where it can occur in large volumes
as batholiths in the roots of mountains (e.g.
Scotland, Norway).
• Commonly found in dykes and sills; in North
America and continental Europe
Extrusive
Igneous
Rock
02
 Basalt
• Basalt is an extrusive igneous or volcanic rock
that has a low silica content, dark in colour,
and is very rich in iron and magnesium. Basalt
rock is mainly composed of pyroxene, olivine,
and plagioclase and is the most common rock
on the earth's surface.
• Basalts are formed by the rapid cooling of
basaltic lava, equivalent to gabbro-norite
magma, from interior of the crust and exposed
at or very close to the surface of Earth.
• It is found all over Earth, but especially under
the oceans and in other areas where Earth's
crust is thin.