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RE: Geology | What is Basalt?

in #geology7 years ago

So basalt is distinguished by the rapid cooling of the lava (?) and the small pieces of crystal? Did I hit it right? Lol

So rocks are classified and named according to the cooling time, cryztal size, color and where they come from?

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Igneous rocks are classified first by grain size (visible with the naked eye or not) and then by their relative proportions of different minerals.

Oh okay. That's something new for today. Basically, it's about proportion of sizes for igneous rocks from macro to microscopic relation of minerals? Thanks!

First comes the distinction between fine grained (volcanic) and coarse grained (plutonic) rocks. After that the classification is based on mineral proportions.
For example the coarse grained equivalent of a basalt is a gabbro.

Ahhh okay. I would love to get to know a bit more about rocls and make distinctions between them as volcanic or plutonic then igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. That would be fun

Hey there, @josejirafa! I see your questions have been entertained by @sooflauschig, so I have no need to repeat them all! What he said are all true and I'm glad you are very curious to know more about geology. Just keep asking! :)

The fun part is really distinguishing these rocks from one another, even just among the three major classifications of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic!