Link to USGS home page
USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS
Coastal & Marine Geology InfoBank

USGS CMG InfoBank: Textures and Conditions

Skip navigational links
Search InfoBank
Home tab FACS tab Activities tab Atlas tab Geology School tab More tab More tab Geology School tabs
   
Dictionaries: The USGS and Science Education   USGS Fact Sheets   Topics   Keywords   Data Dictionary   Metadata Dictionary   Computer Terminology   Digital Formats
InfoBank Terms: Activity ID   activity overview   crew   formal metadata   lines   metadata   NGDC   port stops   project/theme   region   ship   stations   time   virtual globe   year  
Data Types: bathymetry   geodetic positioning   gravity   ground penetrating radar   imagery   LIDAR   magnetics   metering equipment   navigation   samples   seismic   definitions disclaimer  
Data Formats: ARC coverage   E00   FGDC metadata   gridded/image   imaging   material   scattered/swath   Shapefile   vector/polygon  
   
Comment: 06:48 - 07:53 (01:05)

Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 14. Intrusive Igneous Rocks

Keywords: "J. Lawford Anderson", crystal, phaneritic, granite, aphanitic, obsidian

Our transcription: Textures that result in the crystallization of those minerals tells us about the conditions under which that rock formed.

Some rocks have very large crystals that are easily visible to the naked eye, and we call that a "phaneritic texture".

Your everyday granite has a phaneritic texture.

That shows that rock had to crystallize at some depth several kilometers down in the Earth's crust.

That rock represented a different time.

It's exposed now at the surface only due to later tectonic activity.

Other igneous rocks crystallize near the surface.

Volcanic rocks, for example, record a very rapid crystallization of the same kind of magma, but as the crystallization becomes more rapid, the crystals are forced to be smaller and smaller becoming eventually "aphanitic" or invisible to the eye.

Or even faster the minerals don't have time to grow, and the result is volcanic glass which we call obsidian.

So we're learning to read textures from the rock, and we learn the conditions under which it forms.

Geology School Keywords

Skip footer navigational links


InfoBank   Menlo Park & Santa Cruz Centers   St. Petersburg Center   Woods Hole Center   Coastal and Marine Geology Program   Geologic Information   Ask-A-Geologist   USGS Disclaimer  

FirstGov button   Take Pride in America button