Is Granite More Dense Than Basalt

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Is granite more dense than basalt.

Ocean crust is made of basalt and continental crust is mostly granite 3. All rocks of igneous origin consist of magma or molten earth that finds its way up to. Granite is a very hard granular crystalline igneous rock which consists mainly of quartz mica and feldspar and is often used as building stone. Gabbro basalt and gabbro have a similar composition just the crystal size differs from different cooling rates same for rhyolite and granite.

Which would be less dense granite or magma that contains the same minerals as granite. Sedimentary rocks and granite which are rich in quartz and feldspar tend to be less dense than volcanic rocks. And if you know your igneous petrology you will see that the more mafic rich in magnesium and iron a rock is the greater its density. The molten minerals would less dense for the same reason hot water is less dense than cold water and hot air is less dense than cold air.

Granitic rocks are even less dense than basalt. It also has abundant quartz. Basalt is a common extrusive igneous rock formed by the rapid cooling of basaltic lava exposed at or very near the surface of earth. Basalt is an igneous volcanic rock that forms commonly in oceanic crust and parts of continental crust.

Earth contains three kinds of rocks namely igneous rocks sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks basalt and granite are two types of igneous rocks. The key difference between basalt and granite is that basalt is mostly occurring on ocean floors while granite is in the crust of the earth in all continents. Basalt is more common in oceanic crust while granite is more common in continental crust. In terms of minerals granite has even more feldspar and less amphibole than basalt and almost no pyroxene or olivine.

It forms from lava flows which extrude onto the surface and cool. Ask students to justify their labels with an explanation that includes the following words. Summary of basalt vs. Basalt is denser than granite because basalt is a an oceanic type of rock so it has had more pressure from the ocean making it denser than granite because granite is a continental type of rock.

Ask students to individually label which rock basalt or granite they think is continental crust and which rock is oceanic crust based on their results from the density lab.