CLASSIFICATION OF ROCKS

Can be classified based on their texture and composition.

 Texture – size, shape and arrangement of mineral grains and other constituents of rocks.
 Composition – you can classify a rock based on its composition. Rocks are composed of one or
more minerals and minerals are composed of one or more elements.

IGNEOUS ROCKS

Crystalline – when they are formed from cooled magma or lava.

Pyroclastic – when they are made of consolidated eruption products like volcanic ash.

Crystalline textures differ depending on how fast and where the cooling takes place.

Kinds:

a. Intrusive rocks or plutonic rocks – form from slowly cooled magma that have time to form
large mineral crystals that are visible without the aid of magnifying lens. The resulting
texture is called phaneritic.
b. Extrusive or volcanic rocks – form from rapidly cooled magma and special volcanic texture is
displaced by those rocks who have no time to cool, usually when lava is expelled under
water. Those rocks exhibit aphanitic textures. And another one is the vesicular texture,
which is the result of the gases escaping while the volcanic rock is being formed.
c. When a magma body intrudes into a shallow depth near earth surface and begins to
crystallize slowly then a following volcanic activity force out thus speeding up the rate of
cooling. Such rocks may result to at least two distinct crystal sizes which result to porphyritic
texture.