BFC21303

ENGINEERING GEOLOGY

CHAPTER 3
THE STUDY OF ROCKS
INTRODUCTION

• Rock is defined as a mixtures formed of aggregates of one or more

minerals.

• Rocks can be formed by many different processes such as:

(1) Igneous - Crystallization of a melts – magma (intrusive) and lava (extrusive)

(2) Sedimentary - Solidifying sediments like sand or clay

(3) Metamorphic - Re-crystallizing previously formed rocks in the solid state

(4) Hydrothermal - Some are formed by crystallization from hot aqueous fluids (watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4H4W0jiP2w sulfur mining indonesia)

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ROCK CYCLE
https://youtu.be/7m8tevimgco

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ROCK CYCLE

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 https://youtu.be/EGK1KkLjdQY

Video about types of rock and rock cycle.

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 CHAPTER 3.1:

IGNEOUS ROCKS

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IGNEOUS ROCKS
• Defined as rocks which are normally crystalline in nature having solidified
from an original molten state or magma that exists for long period of
time beneath the surface of earth.

• Igneous rocks can be derived from the (1) cooling of molten magma or of
(2) solidification of lava from volcanic eruption.

• MAGMA is molten rock material generated in the certain zones deep inside
the earth's crust and possible in the upper zones of the mantle.

• Magma moves from deeper zones to higher zones of the crust through
forceful injections into fractures and faults in the adjacent rocks.

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What Is Magma?
• Magma is hot molten mobile rock.

• Magmas come out of active volcanoes as lavas.

• The most abundant magma is a melt of silicate composition and this can carry
suspended crystals and gases which bubble out in air.

• It is a mixture of liquid rock, crystals, and gas.

• Magmas are less dense than surrounding rocks, and therefore it will move upward.

• If magma makes it to the surface it will erupt and later crystallize to form an
extrusive or volcanic rock.

• If it crystallizes before it reaches the surface it will form an igneous rock at depth
called a plutonic or intrusive igneous rock.
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Extrusive/
Volcanic

Intrusive/
Plutonic

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 Andesit
Magma

The thicknes
may be differ
for different
site

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Temperature: 1200 - Temperature: 1000 Temperature: 800 -
1000°C - 800°C 650°C
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 Magma Type (Basaltic) - 1000C -
1200C

Basalt: A fine-grained igneous rock that Gabbro is a dark-colored coarse-grained

is usually black in color. intrusive igneous rock.

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 Magma Type (Andesitic) - 800C -
1000C
Andesite: Has a porphyritic texture
Diorite: This specimen clearly shows the
familiar "salt and pepper" appearance of
diorite, produced by white plagioclase
contrasting with black hornblende and
biotite.
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Magma Type (Rhyolitic) - 650C - 800C

Rhyolite: A pink specimen of rhyolite withGranite: The specimen above is a typical

numerous very tiny vugs with some granite. The grain size is coarse enough to
evidence of flow structures. allow recognition of the major minerals.

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INTRUSIVE EXTRUSIVE

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 VERY FAST COOLING –
CELLULAR/VESICULAR

Scoria is a dark to intermediate Pumice: This specimen shows the frothy

colored igneous rock with abundant vesicular texture of pumice. It has a
round bubble-like cavities known as specific gravity of less than one and will
vesicles. float on water.
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Grain size
Three types of rock can be identified based on predominant grain.
Size that reflects the depth at which molten rocks form within the
Earth:

a) VOLCANIC ROCKS (EXTRUSIVE):

Solidify close to the Earth's surface. Because cool quickly they
have a finer-grained matrix called groundmass. They may contain
some larger crystals that formed earlier further down called phenocrysts.

b) PLUTONIC ROCKS (INTRUSIVE):

Form deeper within the Earth and the slower cooling allows them
to crystallize as coarse-grained rocks.

c) HYPABYSSAL OR SUB VOLCANIC ROCKS:

Form at intermediate depths generally as dykes and sills and so tend
to be medium-grained.
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Classification of Igneous Rocks

• There are various ways of classifying igneous rocks.

• The most significant are:-

(1) Mineralogical and chemical composition

(2) Rock texture (geological environment).

• Igneous rocks are either formed as Intrusive or

Extrusive Rocks.

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Types of Igneous Rocks

Scientists have divided igneous rocks into two

broad categories based on where the molten rock
solidified.

(1) VOLCANIC OR EXTRUSIVE IGNEOUS ROCKS

Form when the magma cools and crystallizes on the surface
of the Earth.

(2) PLUTONIC OR INTRUSIVE IGNEOUS ROCKS

Where in the magma crystallizes at depth in the Earth.
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Intrusive and extrusive igneous rock bodies

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Rock Texture

• The most important distinction (charactreristics) in igneous rocks is texture,

which is related to the size and shape of the constituent crystallite grains.

• Igneous rocks have distinctive textures, characterized mostly by the

interlocking grains that grow from cooling magma.

• In Igneous rocks, the cooling history and environment is the function of the
formation of textures.

• Magmas located deep within the Earth's crust cools slowly and thus the
individual minerals grains may grow.

• In contrast, lava extruded at the Earth's surface cools rapidly, where

mineral grains do not have time to grow, therefore cannot be seen
without the aid of a microscope. The rocks appear massive and
structureless.

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Rock Texture

• Consist of:

1.Phaneritic texture
2.Aphanetic texture
3.Glassy texture
4.Porphyritic texture
5.Vesicular Texture

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(1)Phaneritic texture

• Individual grains are large enough and visible to

naked eye.

• Grains approximately equal in size, form

interlocking mosaic and very coarse.

• Developed from magmas that cool slowly and

common in intrusive bodies.

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Examples of phaneritic rocks; phaneritic texture, consists of large grains and can be
seen unaided

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(2) Aphanetic texture

• Individual crystals are so small and cannot be

seen unaided.

• Rocks are massive and experienced rapid cooling

that there was no sufficient time for the growth of
large crystals.

• Characteristic of volcanic rock and some intrusive

rocks which lost its heat to the surrounding
country rock.

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Aphanetic texture consists of grains too small to be seen without a
microscope

BASALT

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(3) Glassy texture

• Similar to ordinary glass.

• Crystals cannot be discerned in a glassy texture,

even when the specimen is viewed under high
magnification e.g. obsidian.

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A glassy texture develops when lava material cools very fast

Black is the most common color

of obsidian.

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(4) Porphyritic texture

• Larger earlier formed crystals are enclosed by a

ground mass of smaller crystals.

• Cooling history of magma may begin slowly initially

which developed coarse crystals

• Then while partly crystallized the magma may move

to another environment in which the cooling is more
rapid which precipitate fine crystals around the
earlier coarse crystals.
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A hand sample and a thin section of porphyritic aphanitic textured rocks.
The porphyritic phaneritic texture results from two stages of cooling

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Andesite: Has a porphyritic texture.

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 Phenocrysts

Matrix/Ground mass
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(5) Vesicular Texture

• This term refers to vesicles (holes, pores, or cavities) within

the igneous rock.

• Vesicles result from gas expansion (bubbles), which often

occurs during volcanic eruptions.

• Pumice and scoria are common types of vesicular rocks.

• The image below shows a basalt with vesicles, hence the name
"vesicular basalt".

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Vesicular rocks

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Pumice

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Scoria

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Summary of Igneous Rocks Structures

Mode of
Rock Types Rock Textures
formation

EXTRUSIVE Lavas Glassy or fine-grained

Minor Fine to moderately

Intrusions coarse-texture
INTRUSIVE
Major
Coarsely crystalline
Intrusions

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Chemical and Mineralogical Composition

• Rocks that are rich in silica are called silicic or felsic (Acid), rocks and those that
are low in silica content are called mafic rocks (Basic).

• Color provides a valuable clue for identification igneous rocks because the silicic
rocks are mainly composed of lightly colored minerals like quartz and feldspar,
whereas the mafic rocks are dark colored because of the abundance
ferromagnesian minerals. The dark colored ferromagnesian minerals are rich in iron
and magnesium, include olivine, pyroxene and hornblende.

• The major igneous rock types fall into categories of high, intermediate and low silica
content.

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Minerology of Igneous Rock

Felsic/Light
colour Mafic/Dark colour
ULTRA
ACID BASIC (45
INTERMEDIATE BASIC (< 45%
(>63% silica) – 55%)
silica)

Crystalline Feldspar
Texture Orthoclase - Plagioclase

Extrusive Fine Rhyolite Trachyte Andesite Basalt Ultrabasic

lavas
(Usual Medium Microgranite Microsyenite Microdiorite Dolerite Peridotite
Occurrence) porphyry
Coarse Granite Syenite Diorite Gabbro Peridotite
Intrusive

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Formation of Igneous Rocks

(a) Intrusive Processes:

• Intrusive rocks which cool and solidify under pressure and at great depths are usually
wholly crystalline in texture, since the conditions of cooling are conducive to crystal
formation.

• Such rocks occur in masses of great extent, often going to unknown depths.

• Although originally formed deep underground, intrusive rocks are now widely exposed
because of earth movement and erosion processes.

• Intrusion refers to the movement of magma from a magma chamber to a different

subsurface location.

• Bodies of rock formed by the intrusive magma are called plutons.

• Rocks that make up plutons usually have phaneritic texture because the cooling time was
sufficient to allow the formation of large crystals.
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Types of Plutons
• Plutons differ in terms of size, shape and relationship to the
rocks that were intruded by the magma, which are older rocks
known as country rocks.

• Common ones are:

https://youtu.be/uIQTfnJg_aA
(a) Dykes
(b) Sills
(c) Laccoliths
(d) Batholiths

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DIKE AND SILL FORMATION

https://youtu.be/6loGYTCBVqo

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Dykes
• Tabular or wall like mass.

• Results from magma

injected into cracks and
joints in rocks.

• Vary in width from a few cm

to a few meters but not more
than 3 meters wide.

• Largest known dyke in

Zimbabwe, Africa which is
600 km long and average
width of 10 km. Magnificent volcanic dike outside La Palma,
Canary Islands
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Sills

• Rising magma follows path of least resistance

such as bedding plane, which separates layers of
sedimentary rock.

• Magma injected between the layers form tabular

intrusive body parallel to layering.

• Sills range from few centimeters to hundreds of

meters thick and can extend to several kilometers.

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Laccoliths

• Viscous magma injected between layers of

sedimentary rock, tend to uparched the overlying
strata forming mushroom shaped.

• Usually thicker in center and thinner near margin

and may give rise to dome shaped hill.

• Can be several kilometers in diameter and thousands

of meters thick and typically porphyritic.

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https://youtu.be/6loGYTCBVqo
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Batholiths

• Largest rock bodies in the Earth's crust, generally

granitic composition.

• Cover several thousand square kilometers and may be

60 km thick.

• Typically form in the deeper zones of mountain

belts and are exposed only after considerable
uplift and erosion.

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Types of plutons

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Extrusive Processes

• Extrusive rocks are formed from the violent eruption of

volcanoes, fissures or cracks in the earth's cracks.

• Some materials will be emitted with gaseous extrusions into

the atmosphere, where they will cool quickly and eventually
fall to the earth's surface as volcanic ash and dust.

• The main product of volcanic action is a lava flow emitted

from within the earth as a molten stream which flows over
surface of the existing ground until it solidifies.

• Extrusive rocks are generally distinguished by their usual fine-

grained texture.

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Examples of Igneous rock

• Granite

• Basalt

• Gabbro

• Diorite

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Granite (Intrusive)
• Granite characterized by a granular texture, has feldspar and
quartz (at least 20%) as its two most abundant minerals.

• In consequence most granite is light-coloured, Biotite or

hornblende or both are also present in most granite with
accessory apatite, magnetite and sphene.

• Granites can be fine, medium or coarse-grained depending

on grain sizes of the essential minerals and porphyritic or non
porphyritic depending on the absence or presence of
phenocrysts (usually alkali feldspar) and/or muscovite.

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Colour differ based on the mineral.

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Basalt (Extrusive)

• Basalt is dark coloured (black to medium grey), fine

grained (aphanitic) igneous rock.

• Composed of plagioclase, feldspar, pyroxene and

magnetite with or without olivine and contain more than
53% by weight of SiO2.

• Most basalts are non porphyritic but some contain

phenocrysts of plagioclase, olivine and pyroxene.

• Basalt is the world's most abundant lava and is very

widespread.
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Basalt

Pillow basalts on the south Pacific

An active basalt lava flow seafloor

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Crystallization of Magma

• Crystallization of magma is not a simple process.

• An experiment done by N.L.Bowen (Figure 3.6) in early 1900s demonstrated

that minerals crystallize sequentially as the temperature drops in a
silicate magma and that solid crystals can react with the liquid phase of
the magma to form new minerals during the crystallization process.

• To explain crystallization process, assuming that initially we have a basaltic

composition at about 1500°C.

• As temperature is slightly lowered, crystals begin to separate from the

liquid.

• There are two crystallization sequences that are observed as the melt
cools.
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First sequence - crystallization of plagioclase

• This is solid-solution series between calcium-rich and sodium

rich compositions.

• The first plagioclase crystals to form are higher in calcium content

than the calcium content of the liquid phase.

• As the mixture continues to cool, the crystals that form have

progressively less calcium and more sodium than the original
plagioclase crystals.

• The crystallization of plagioclase follows what is called a continuous

reaction series, in which the liquid and the crystals continuously
change in composition until no liquid remains.

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Second sequence - crystallization of ferromagnesian mineral

• The ferromagnesian minerals follow a second type of crystallization sequence.

• In this series, olivine is the first ferromagnesian mineral to crystallize.

• As the temperature decreases, no change in the olivine crystals occurs until a critical temperature is
reached.

• At this point, augite rather than olivine begins to crystallize and the early-formed olivine crystals
react with the liquid to form augite.

• These reactions are different from the continuous reaction of plagioclase because entirely new
minerals with different internal structures form at specific temperatures.

• For this reason the ferromagnesian crystallization sequence is called a discontinuous reaction series.

• The same type of reaction occurs between augite and liquid to form hornblende at a lower
temperature.

• The entire sequence of mineral crystallization is known as Bowen's Reaction Series.

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 Experiment lava with water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XgpYXVN-Kk

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Thank you for your attention!!!