1.

Mode of Occurrence of Igneous Rocks

Magmas erupted from volcanoes are either poured out as coherent
fluidal lava flows or blown out as fragments of various sizes. A body
of magma may also be emplaced and cool beneath the surface of the
Earth. Igneous rocks result from the final solidification of magma at
the surface or at variable depths within the Earth, as well as from
the eventual consolidation of fragmented debris. Igneous rocks thus
occur in two ways, either as “extrusive” (on the surface) rocks or
as “intrusive” (below the surface) bodies. Intrusive rocks are also
called “plutonic” (Pluto, the Greek god of infernal regions,
therefore deep-seated) and extrusive rocks “volcanic.” The terms
intrusive and extrusive only refer to the place where the rock
solidified. Extrusive rocks cool rapidly because they have erupted at
the Earth’s surface, but intrusive rocks cool more slowly within an
insulating blanket of surrounding rocks into which they have been
emplaced. The rapid cooling of magma gives a fine-grained rock, which
may even be glassy, whereas slower cooling gives coarse-grained rock
with large crystals.

DISTRIBUTION OF IGNEOUS ROCKS

Igneous and metamorphic rocks make up 90–95% of the top 16 kilometers
(9.9 mi) of the Earth's crust by volume. Igneous rocks form about 15% of the
Earth's current land surface. Most of the Earth's oceanic crust is made of
igneous rock.
GRANITE
-rough-cut and polished granite is used as material for the construction of
building walls, bridge piers, monuments, pavements, road curbs, and other
exterior works.
-used as coarse aggregate in concrete, aggregates in road construction,
external wall cladding material, and ballast for railways.

SYENITE
-used as a dimension stone, for cement manufacturing, construction or road
aggregate, for landscaping, etc.
-used for manufacturing natural cement as well as Magnesium & Dolomite
Refractories.

DIORITE
-used as a base material in the construction of roads, buildings, and parking
areas. It is also used as a drainage stone and for erosion control. In the
dimension stone industry, diorite is often cut into facing stone, tile, ashlars,
blocking, pavers, curbing, and a variety of dimension stone products.

GABBRO
Gabbro is widely used as crushed stone for concrete aggregate, road base
material, and railroad ballast. Smaller quantities are cut and polished for
dimension stone and called black granite.

PEGMATITE
Pegmatite are used as architectural stone. If the pegmatite is sound and
attractive, it might be cut into slabs and polished for building facing,
countertops, tile or other decorative stone products and sold commercially as
a “granite.” Pegmatite is used in gemstone mining because of it has large
crystal minerals.

DOLERITE
Dolerite is one of the most widely used road pavement construction materials
in South Africa and is classified as a basic crystalline rock.

A form of dolerite, known as bluestone, is one of the materials used in

the construction of Stonehenge. Diabase also serves as local building
stone. In Tasmania, where it is one of the most common rocks found, it is
used for building, for landscaping and to erect dry-stone farm walls.

BASALT
Today, basalt is commonly used as crushed aggregate in construction
projects. Crushed basalt is used for road base, concrete aggregate, asphalt
pavement aggregate, railroad ballast, filter stone in drain fields. But, basalt is
also cut into dimension stone. In thin slabs it is used for building veneers,
flooring, etc.