Granite () is a coarse-grained (
phaneritic)
intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of
quartz,
alkali feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspa ...
, and
plagioclase. It forms from
magma with a high content of
silica and
alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underground. It is common in the
continental crust of Earth, where it is found in
igneous intrusion
In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and ...
s. These range in size from
dikes only a few centimeters across to
batholiths exposed over hundreds of square kilometers.
Granite is typical of a larger family of ''granitic rocks'', or ''
granitoids'', that are composed mostly of coarse-grained quartz and feldspars in varying proportions. These rocks are classified by the relative percentages of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase (the
QAPF classification), with true granite representing granitic rocks rich in quartz and alkali feldspar. Most granitic rocks also contain
mica or
amphibole minerals, though a few (known as
leucogranites) contain almost no dark minerals.
Granite is nearly always massive (lacking any internal structures), hard, and tough. These properties have made granite a widespread construction stone throughout human history.
Description
The word "granite" comes from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''granum'', a grain, in reference to the coarse-grained structure of such a
completely crystalline rock.
Granitic rocks mainly consist of
feldspar,
quartz,
mica, and
amphibole minerals, which form an interlocking, somewhat
equigranular matrix
Matrix most commonly refers to:
* ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise
** '' The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film
** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchi ...
of feldspar and quartz with scattered darker
biotite mica and amphibole (often
hornblende) peppering the lighter color minerals. Occasionally some individual crystals (
phenocrysts) are larger than the
groundmass, in which case the texture is known as
porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic texture is known as a granite
porphyry.
Granitoid is a general, descriptive
field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks.
Petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. Granites can be predominantly white, pink, or gray in color, depending on their
mineralogy.
The
alkali feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspa ...
in granites is typically
orthoclase or
microcline
Microcline (KAlSi3O8) is an important igneous rock-forming tectosilicate mineral. It is a potassium-rich alkali feldspar. Microcline typically contains minor amounts of sodium. It is common in granite and pegmatites. Microcline forms durin ...
and is often
perthitic. The plagioclase is typically sodium-rich
oligoclase
Oligoclase is a rock-forming mineral belonging to the plagioclase feldspars. In chemical composition and in its crystallographic and physical characters it is intermediate between albite ( Na Al Si3 O8) and anorthite ( CaAl2Si2O8). The albite: ...
. Phenocrysts are usually alkali feldspar.
Granitic rocks are classified according to the
QAPF diagram for coarse grained
plutonic rocks
Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form '' intrusions'', such as batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks.Intrusive RocksIntrusive rocks accessdate: March ...
and are named according to the percentage of
quartz, alkali feldspar (
orthoclase,
sanidine, or
microcline
Microcline (KAlSi3O8) is an important igneous rock-forming tectosilicate mineral. It is a potassium-rich alkali feldspar. Microcline typically contains minor amounts of sodium. It is common in granite and pegmatites. Microcline forms durin ...
) and
plagioclase feldspar on the A-Q-P half of the diagram. True granite (according to modern
petrologic convention) contains between 20% and 60% quartz by volume, with 35% to 90% of the total feldspar consisting of
alkali feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspa ...
. Granitic rocks poorer in quartz are classified as
syenite
Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). Some syenites contain larger prop ...
s or
monzonites, while granitic rocks dominated by plagioclase are classified as
granodiorites or
tonalites. Granitic rocks with over 90% alkali feldspar are classified as
alkali feldspar granite
Alkali feldspar granite, some varieties of which are called 'red granite', is a felsic igneous rock and a type of granite rich in the mineral potassium feldspar (K-spar). It is a dense rock with a phaneritic texture. The abundance of K-spar gives ...
s. Granitic rock with more than 60% quartz, which is uncommon, is classified simply as quartz-rich granitoid or, if composed almost entirely of quartz, as
quartzolite.
True granites are further classified by the percentage of their total feldspar that is alkali feldspar. Granites whose feldspar is 65% to 90% alkali feldspar are
syenogranite
Syenogranite is a fine to coarse grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite. They are characteristically felsic.
The feldspar component of syenogranite is predominantly alkaline in character (usually orthoclase). ...
s, while the feldspar in
monzogranite is 35% to 65% alkali feldspar.
A granite containing both muscovite and biotite
micas is called a binary or ''two-mica'' granite. Two-mica granites are typically high in
potassium and low in plagioclase, and are usually S-type granites or A-type granites, as described
below
Below may refer to:
*Earth
* Ground (disambiguation)
*Soil
*Floor
* Bottom (disambiguation)
*Less than
*Temperatures below freezing
*Hell or underworld
People with the surname
*Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general
*Fred Below ...
.
Another aspect of granite classification is the ratios of metals that potentially form feldspars. Most granites have a composition such that almost all their aluminum and alkali metals (sodium and potassium) are combined as feldspar. This is the case when
K2O +
Na2O +
CaO >
Al2O3 > K
2O + Na
2O. Such granites are described as ''normal'' or ''metaluminous''. Granites in which there is not enough aluminum to combine with all the alkali oxides as feldspar (Al
2O
3 < K
2O + Na
2O) are described as ''peralkaline'', and they contain unusual sodium amphiboles such as
riebeckite. Granites in which there is an excess of aluminum beyond what can be taken up in feldspars (Al
2O
3 > CaO + K
2O + Na
2O) are described as ''peraluminous'', and they contain aluminum-rich minerals such as
muscovite.
Physical properties
The average
density of granite is between , its
compressive strength usually lies above 200 MPa, and its
viscosity near
STP is 3–6·10
20 Pa·s.
The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is ; it is strongly reduced in the presence of water, down to 650 °C at a few hundred megapascals of pressure.
Granite has poor primary
permeability overall, but strong secondary permeability through cracks and fractures if they are present.
Chemical composition
A worldwide average of the chemical composition of granite, by weight percent, based on 2485 analyses:
[Blatt and Tracy 1996, p.66]
The medium-grained equivalent of granite is microgranite.
The
extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is
rhyolite.
Occurrence
Granitic rock is widely distributed throughout the
continental crust. Much of it was intruded during the
Precambrian age; it is the most abundant
basement rock that underlies the relatively thin
sedimentary veneer of the continents.
Outcrops of granite tend to form
tors
Tors may refer to:
* Tor (rock formation), rock outcrops
* Ivan Tors (1916–1983), playwright, screenwriter and film and television producer
* TransOral Robotic Surgery, a surgical technique
See also
* Tor (disambiguation)
* Ten Tors
Ten To ...
,
domes or
bornhardts, and rounded
massifs. Granites sometimes occur in circular
depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the
metamorphic aureole or
hornfels. Granite often occurs as relatively small, less than 100 km
2 stock masses (
stocks) and in
batholiths that are often associated with
orogenic mountain ranges. Small
dikes
Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to:
General uses
* Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian"
* Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment
* Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice
* Dikes ...
of granitic composition called
aplites are often associated with the margins of granitic
intrusions. In some locations, very coarse-grained
pegmatite masses occur with granite.
Origin
Granite forms from silica-rich (
felsic) magmas. Felsic magmas are thought to form by addition of heat or water vapor to rock of the lower
crust, rather than by decompression of mantle rock, as is the case with
basaltic magmas. It has also been suggested that some granites found at
convergent boundaries
A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can be defined by a ...
between
tectonic plates, where
oceanic crust subducts
Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...
below continental crust, were formed from
sediments
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...
subducted with the oceanic plate. The melted sediments would have produced magma
intermediate in its silica content, which became further enriched in silica as it rose through the overlying crust.
Early fractional crystallisation serves to reduce a melt in magnesium and chromium, and enrich the melt in iron, sodium, potassium, aluminum, and silicon. Further fractionation reduces the content of iron, calcium, and titanium. This is reflected in the high content of alkali feldspar and quartz in granite.
The presence of granitic rock in
island arcs shows that
fractional crystallization alone can convert a basaltic magma to a granitic magma, but the quantities produced are small. For example, granitic rock makes up just 4% of the exposures in the
South Sandwich Islands. In continental arc settings, granitic rocks are the most common plutonic rocks, and batholiths composed of these rock types extend the entire length of the arc. There are no indication of magma chambers where basaltic magmas
differentiate into granites, or of
cumulates produced by mafic crystals settling out of the magma. Other processes must produce these great volumes of felsic magma. One such process is injection of basaltic magma into the lower crust, followed by differentiation, which leaves any cumulates in the mantle. Another is heating of the lower crust by
underplating basaltic magma, which produces felsic magma directly from crustal rock. The two processes produce different kinds of granites, which may be reflected in the division between S-type (produced by underplating) and I-type (produced by injection and differentiation) granites, discussed below.
Alphabet classification system
The composition and origin of any magma that differentiates into granite leave certain petrological evidence as to what the granite's parental rock was. The final texture and composition of a granite are generally distinctive as to its parental rock. For instance, a granite that is derived from partial melting of metasedimentary rocks may have more alkali feldspar, whereas a granite derived from partial melting of metaigneous rocks may be richer in plagioclase. It is on this basis that the modern "alphabet" classification schemes are based.
The letter-based Chappell & White classification system was proposed initially to divide granites into
I-type (igneous source) granite and S-type (sedimentary sources). Both types are produced by partial melting of crustal rocks, either metaigneous rocks or metasedimentary rocks.
I-type granites are characterized by a high content of sodium and calcium, and by a
strontium isotope
The alkaline earth metal strontium (38Sr) has four stable, naturally occurring isotopes: 84Sr (0.56%), 86Sr (9.86%), 87Sr (7.0%) and 88Sr (82.58%). Its standard atomic weight is 87.62(1).
Only 87Sr is radiogenic; it is produced by decay from the ...
ratio,
87Sr/
86Sr, of less than 0.708.
87Sr is produced by radioactive decay of
87Rb, and since rubidium is concentrated in the crust relative to the mantle, a low ratio suggests origin in the mantle. The elevated sodium and calcium favor crystallization of hornblende rather than biotite. I-type granites are known for their
porphyry copper deposits. I-type granites are orogenic (associated with mountain building) and usually metaluminous.
S-type granites are sodium-poor and aluminum-rich. As a result, they contain
micas such as biotite and muscovite instead of hornblende. Their strontium isotope ratio is typically greater than 0.708, suggesting a crustal origin. They also commonly contain
xenoliths of metamorphosed sedimentary rock, and host
tin ores. Their magmas are water-rich, and they readily solidify as the water outgasses from the magma at lower pressure, so they less commonly make it to the surface than magmas of I-type granites, which are thus more common as volcanic rock (rhyolite). They are also orogenic but range from metaluminous to strongly peraluminous.
Although both I- and S-type granites are orogenic, I-type granites are more common close to the convergent boundary than S-type. This is attributed to thicker crust further from the boundary, which results in more crustal melting.
A-type granites show a peculiar mineralogy and geochemistry, with particularly high silicon and potassium at the expense of calcium and magnesium and a high content of high field strength cations (cations with a small radius and high electrical charge, such as
zirconium,
niobium,
tantalum, and
rare earth elements.) They are not orogenic, forming instead over hot spots and continental rifting, and are metaluminous to mildly peralkaline and iron-rich. These granites are produced by partial melting of refractory lithology such as granulites in the lower continental crust at high thermal gradients. This leads to significant extraction of hydrous felsic melts from granulite-facies resitites. A-type granites occur in the Koettlitz Glacier Alkaline Province in the Royal Society Range, Antarctica. The rhyolites of the Yellowstone Caldera are examples of volcanic equivalents of A-type granite.
M-type granite was later proposed to cover those granites that were clearly sourced from crystallized mafic magmas, generally sourced from the mantle. Although the fractional crystallisation of basaltic melts can yield small amounts of granites, which are sometimes found in island arcs, such granites must occur together with large amounts of basaltic rocks.
H-type granites were suggested for hybrid granites, which were hypothesized to form by mixing between mafic and felsic from different sources, such as M-type and S-type. However, the big difference in rheology between mafic and felsic magmas makes this process problematic in nature.
Granitization
Granitization is an old, and largely discounted, hypothesis that granite is formed in place through extreme
metasomatism. The idea behind granitization was that fluids would supposedly bring in elements such as potassium, and remove others, such as calcium, to transform a metamorphic rock into granite. This was supposed to occur across a migrating front. However, experimental work had established by the 1960s that granites were of igneous origin. The mineralogical and chemical features of granite can be explained only by crystal-liquid phase relations, showing that there must have been at least enough melting to mobilize the magma.
However, at sufficiently deep crustal levels, the distinction between metamorphism and crustal melting itself becomes vague. Conditions for crystallization of liquid magma are close enough to those of high-grade metamorphism that the rocks often bear a close resemblance. Under these conditions, granitic melts can be produced in place through the partial melting of metamorphic rocks by extracting melt-mobile elements such as potassium and silicon into the melts but leaving others such as calcium and iron in granulite residues. This may be the origin of ''
migmatites''. A migmatite consists of dark, refractory rock (the ''melanosome'') that is permeated by sheets and channels of light granitic rock (the ''leucosome''). The leucosome is interpreted as partial melt of a parent rock that has begun to separate from the remaining solid residue (the melanosome). If enough partial melt is produced, it will separate from the source rock, become more highly evolved through fractional crystallization during its ascent toward the surface, and become the magmatic parent of granitic rock. The residue of the source rock becomes a
granulite.
The partial melting of solid rocks requires high temperatures and the addition of water or other volatiles which lower the
solidus temperature (temperature at which partial melting commences) of these rocks. It was long debated whether crustal thickening in orogens (mountain belts along
convergent boundaries
A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can be defined by a ...
) was sufficient to produce granite melts by
radiogenic heating, but recent work suggests that this is not a viable mechanism. In-situ granitization requires heating by the asthenospheric mantle or by underplating with mantle-derived magmas.
Ascent and emplacement
Granite magmas have a density of 2.4 Mg/m
3, much less than the 2.8 Mg/m
3 of high-grade metamorphic rock. This gives them tremendous buoyancy, so that ascent of the magma is inevitable once enough magma has accumulated. However, the question of precisely how such large quantities of magma are able to shove aside
country rock to make room for themselves (the ''room problem'') is still a matter of research.
Two main mechanisms are thought to be important:
*Stokes
diapir
*
Fracture propagation
Of these two mechanisms, Stokes diapirism has been favoured for many years in the absence of a reasonable alternative. The basic idea is that magma will rise through the crust as a single mass through
buoyancy. As it rises, it heats the
wall rocks, causing them to behave as a
power-law fluid and thus flow around the
intrusion allowing it to pass without major heat loss. This is entirely feasible in the warm,
ductile lower crust where rocks are easily deformed, but runs into problems in the upper crust which is far colder and more brittle. Rocks there do not deform so easily: for magma to rise as a diapir it would expend far too much energy in heating wall rocks, thus cooling and solidifying before reaching higher levels within the crust.
Fracture propagation is the mechanism preferred by many geologists as it largely eliminates the major problems of moving a huge mass of magma through cold brittle crust. Magma rises instead in small channels along self-propagating
dykes which form along new or pre-existing fracture or
fault systems and networks of active shear zones. As these narrow conduits open, the first magma to enter solidifies and provides a form of insulation for later magma.
These mechanisms can operate in tandem. For example, diapirs may continue to rise through the brittle upper crust through
stoping, where the granite cracks the roof rocks, removing blocks of the overlying crust which then sink to the bottom of the diapir while the magma rises to take their place. This can occur as piecemeal stopping (stoping of small blocks of chamber roof), as cauldron subsidence (collapse of large blocks of chamber roof), or as roof foundering (complete collapse of the roof of a shallow magma chamber accompanied by a
caldera eruption.) There is evidence for cauldron subsidence at the Mt. Ascutney intrusion in eastern Vermont. Evidence for piecemeal stoping is found in intrusions that are rimmed with ''igneous breccia'' containing fragments of country rock.
Assimilation is another mechanism of ascent, where the granite melts its way up into the crust and removes overlying material in this way. This is limited by the amount of thermal energy available, which must be replenished by crystallization of higher-melting minerals in the magma. Thus, the magma is melting crustal rock at its roof while simultaneously crystallizing at its base. This results in steady contamination with crustal material as the magma rises. This may not be evident in the major and minor element chemistry, since the minerals most likely to crystallize at the base of the chamber are the same ones that would crystallize anyway, but crustal assimilation is detectable in isotope ratios. Heat loss to the country rock means that ascent by assimilation is limited to distance similar to the height of the magma chamber.
Weathering
Physical weathering occurs on a large scale in the form of
exfoliation joints, which are the result of granite's expanding and fracturing as pressure is relieved when overlying material is removed by erosion or other processes.
Chemical weathering of granite occurs when dilute
carbonic acid, and other acids present in rain and soil waters,
alter
Alter may refer to:
* Alter (name), people named Alter
* Alter (automobile)
* Alter (crater), a lunar crater
* Alter Channel, a Greek TV channel
* Archbishop Alter High School, a Roman Catholic high school in Kettering, Ohio
* ALTER, a command ...
feldspar in a process called
hydrolysis. As demonstrated in the following reaction, this causes potassium feldspar to form
kaolinite, with potassium ions, bicarbonate, and silica in solution as byproducts. An end product of granite weathering is
grus, which is often made up of coarse-grained fragments of disintegrated granite.
Climatic variations also influence the weathering rate of granites. For about two thousand years, the relief engravings on
Cleopatra's Needle
Cleopatra's Needles are a separated pair of ancient Egyptian obelisks now in London and New York City. The obelisks were originally made in Heliopolis (modern Cairo) during the New Kingdom period, inscribed by the 18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmose I ...
obelisk had survived the arid conditions of its origin before its transfer to London. Within two hundred years, the red granite has drastically deteriorated in the damp and polluted air there.
Soil development on granite reflects the rock's high quartz content and dearth of available bases, with the base-poor status predisposing the soil to
acidification and
podzolization in cool humid climates as the weather-resistant quartz yields much sand. Feldspars also weather slowly in cool climes, allowing sand to dominate the fine-earth fraction. In warm humid regions, the weathering of feldspar as described above is accelerated so as to allow a much higher proportion of clay with the
Cecil soil series a prime example of the consequent
Ultisol
Ultisols, commonly known as red clay soils, are one of twelve soil orders in the United States Department of Agriculture soil taxonomy. The word "Ultisol" is derived from "ultimate", because Ultisols were seen as the ultimate product of continu ...
great soil group.
Natural radiation
Granite is a natural source of
radiation, like most natural stones.
Potassium-40 is a
radioactive isotope of weak emission, and a constituent of
alkali feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspa ...
, which in turn is a common component of granitic rocks, more abundant in
alkali feldspar granite
Alkali feldspar granite, some varieties of which are called 'red granite', is a felsic igneous rock and a type of granite rich in the mineral potassium feldspar (K-spar). It is a dense rock with a phaneritic texture. The abundance of K-spar gives ...
and
syenite
Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). Some syenites contain larger prop ...
s.
Some granites contain around 10 to 20
parts per million (ppm) of
uranium. By contrast, more mafic rocks, such as tonalite,
gabbro and
diorite, have 1 to 5 ppm uranium, and
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...
s and
sedimentary rocks usually have equally low amounts. Many large granite plutons are sources for
palaeochannel
A palaeochannel, also spelt paleochannel and also known as palaeovalley or palaeoriver, is a geological term describing a remnant of an inactive river or stream channel that has been filled or buried by younger sediment. The sediments that th ...
-hosted or roll front
uranium ore deposits, where the uranium washes into the
sediments from the granite uplands and associated, often highly radioactive pegmatites. Cellars and basements built into soils over granite can become a trap for
radon
Radon is a chemical element with the symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colourless, odourless, tasteless noble gas. It occurs naturally in minute quantities as an intermediate step in the normal radioactive decay chains th ...
gas, which is formed by the decay of uranium. Radon gas poses significant health concerns and is the number two cause of
lung cancer in the US behind smoking.
Thorium occurs in all granites.
Conway granite has been noted for its relatively high thorium concentration of 56±6 ppm.
There is some concern that some granite sold as countertops or building material may be hazardous to health. Dan Steck of St. Johns University has stated
that approximately 5% of all granite is of concern, with the caveat that only a tiny percentage of the tens of thousands of granite slab types have been tested. Resources from national geological survey organizations are accessible online to assist in assessing the risk factors in granite country and design rules relating, in particular, to preventing accumulation of radon gas in enclosed basements and dwellings.
A study of granite countertops was done (initiated and paid for by the Marble Institute of America) in November 2008 by National Health and Engineering Inc. of USA. In this test, all of the 39 full-size granite slabs that were measured for the study showed radiation levels well below the European Union safety standards (section 4.1.1.1 of the National Health and Engineering study) and radon emission levels well below the average outdoor radon concentrations in the US.
Industry
Granite and related
marble industries are considered one of the oldest industries in the world, existing as far back as
Ancient Egypt.
Major modern exporters of granite include China, India, Italy, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Spain and the United States.
Uses
Antiquity
The
Red Pyramid of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
(circa 2590 BC), named for the light crimson hue of its exposed limestone surfaces, is the third largest of
Egyptian pyramids.
Pyramid of Menkaure, likely dating 2510 BC, was constructed of
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...
and granite blocks. The
Great Pyramid of Giza (c.
2580 BC) contains a huge granite
sarcophagus fashioned of "Red
Aswan Granite". The mostly ruined
Black Pyramid
The Black Pyramid ( ar, الهرم الأسود, al-Haram al'Aswad) was built by King Amenemhat III (r. c. 1860 BC-c. 1814 BC) during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2055–1650 BC). It is one of the five remaining pyramids of the original eleven ...
dating from the reign of
Amenemhat III once had a polished granite
pyramidion or capstone, which is now on display in the main hall of the
Egyptian Museum in
Cairo (see
Dahshur). Other uses in
Ancient Egypt include
columns, door
lintels,
sills,
jambs, and wall and floor veneer. How the
Egyptians worked the solid granite is still a matter of debate.
Patrick Hunt has postulated that the Egyptians used
emery, which has greater
hardness on the
Mohs scale
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness () is a qualitative ordinal scale, from 1 to 10, characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material.
The scale was introduced in 1812 by ...
.
The
Seokguram Grotto in Korea is a
Buddhist shrine and part of the
Bulguksa temple complex. Completed in 774 AD, it is an artificial grotto constructed entirely of granite. The main Buddha of the grotto is a highly regarded piece of
Buddhist art, and along with the temple complex to which it belongs, Seokguram was added to the
UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995.
Rajaraja Chola I of the Chola Dynasty in South India built the world's first temple entirely of granite in the 11th century AD in
Tanjore,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
. The
Brihadeeswarar Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva was built in 1010. The massive Gopuram (ornate, upper section of shrine) is believed to have a mass of around 81 tonnes. It was the tallest temple in south India.
Imperial Roman granite was quarried mainly in Egypt, and also in Turkey, and on the islands of
Elba and
Giglio. Granite became "an integral part of the Roman language of monumental architecture".
[ The quarrying ceased around the third century AD. Beginning in Late Antiquity the granite was reused, which since at least the early 16th century became known as ]spolia
''Spolia'' (Latin: 'spoils') is repurposed building stone for new construction or decorative sculpture reused in new monuments. It is the result of an ancient and widespread practice whereby stone that has been quarried, cut and used in a built ...
. Through the process of case-hardening, granite becomes harder with age. The technology required to make tempered metal chisels was largely forgotten during the Middle Ages. As a result, Medieval stoneworkers were forced to use saws or emery to shorten ancient columns or hack them into discs. Giorgio Vasari noted in the 16th century that granite in quarries was "far softer and easier to work than after it has lain exposed" while ancient columns, because of their "hardness and solidity have nothing to fear from fire or sword, and time itself, that drives everything to ruin, not only has not destroyed them but has not even altered their colour."
Modern
Sculpture and memorials
In some areas, granite is used for gravestones and memorials. Granite is a hard stone and requires skill to carve by hand. Until the early 18th century, in the Western world, granite could be carved only by hand tools with generally poor results.
A key breakthrough was the invention of steam-powered cutting and dressing tools by Alexander MacDonald of Aberdeen, inspired by seeing ancient Egyptian granite carvings. In 1832, the first polished tombstone of Aberdeen granite to be erected in an English cemetery was installed at Kensal Green Cemetery. It caused a sensation in the London monumental trade and for some years all polished granite ordered came from MacDonald's. As a result of the work of sculptor William Leslie, and later Sidney Field, granite memorials became a major status symbol in Victorian Britain. The royal sarcophagus at Frogmore was probably the pinnacle of its work, and at 30 tons one of the largest. It was not until the 1880s that rival machinery and works could compete with the MacDonald works.
Modern methods of carving include using computer-controlled rotary bits and sandblasting over a rubber stencil. Leaving the letters, numbers, and emblems exposed and the remainder of the stone covered with rubber, the blaster can create virtually any kind of artwork or epitaph.
The stone known as "black granite" is usually gabbro, which has a completely different chemical composition.
Buildings
Granite has been extensively used as a dimension stone and as flooring tiles in public and commercial buildings and monuments. Aberdeen in Scotland, which is constructed principally from local granite, is known as "The Granite City". Because of its abundance in New England, granite was commonly used to build foundations for homes there. The Granite Railway, America's first railroad, was built to haul granite from the quarries in Quincy, Massachusetts, to the Neponset River
The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its headwaters are at the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near Gillette Stadium. From there, the Neponset meanders generally northeast for about to its mouth at ...
in the 1820s.
Engineering
Engineers have traditionally used polished granite surface plates to establish a plane of reference, since they are relatively impervious, inflexible, and maintain good dimensional stability. Sandblasted concrete with a heavy aggregate
Aggregate or aggregates may refer to:
Computing and mathematics
* collection of objects that are bound together by a root entity, otherwise known as an aggregate root. The aggregate root guarantees the consistency of changes being made within the ...
content has an appearance similar to rough granite, and is often used as a substitute when use of real granite is impractical. Granite tables are used extensively as bases or even as the entire structural body of optical instruments, CMMs, and very high precision CNC machines because of granite's rigidity, high dimensional stability, and excellent vibration characteristics. A most unusual use of granite was as the material of the tracks of the Haytor Granite Tramway, Devon, England, in 1820. Granite block is usually processed into slabs, which can be cut and shaped by a cutting center
Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force.
Implements commonly used for cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the scalpel and mi ...
. In military engineering, Finland planted granite boulders along its Mannerheim Line
The Mannerheim Line ( fi, Mannerheim-linja, sv, Mannerheimlinjen) was a defensive fortification line on the Karelian Isthmus built by Finland against the Soviet Union. While this was never an officially designated name, during the Winter War ...
to block invasion by Russian tanks in the Winter War of 1939–40.
Paving
Granite is used as a pavement material. This is because it is extremely durable, permeable and requires little maintenance. For example, in Sydney, Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
black granite stone is used for the paving and kerbs throughout the Central Business District.
Curling stones
Curling stones are traditionally fashioned of Ailsa Craig granite. The first stones were made in the 1750s, the original source being Ailsa Craig in Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. Because of the rarity of this granite, the best stones can cost as much as US$1,500. Between 60 and 70 percent of the stones used today are made from Ailsa Craig granite, although the island is now a wildlife reserve and is still used for quarrying under license for Ailsa granite by Kays of Scotland for curling stones.
Rock climbing
Granite is one of the rocks most prized by climbers, for its steepness, soundness, crack systems, and friction. Well-known venues for granite climbing include the Yosemite Valley, the Bugaboos
The Bugaboos are a mountain range in the Purcell Mountains of eastern British Columbia, Canada. The granite spires of the group are a popular mountaineering destination. The Bugaboos are protected within Bugaboo Provincial Park.
Geography
...
, the Mont Blanc massif (and peaks such as the Aiguille du Dru
The Aiguille du Dru (also the Dru or the Drus; French, Les Drus) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps. It is situated to the east of the village of Les Praz in the Chamonix valley. "Aiguille" means "needle" in French.
Th ...
, the Mourne Mountains, the Adamello-Presanella Alps, the Aiguille du Midi and the Grandes Jorasses
The Grandes Jorasses (4,208 m; 13,806 ft) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, on the boundary between Haute-Savoie in France and Aosta Valley in Italy.
The first ascent of the highest peak of the mountain (''Pointe Walker'') was by ...
), the Bregaglia, Corsica, parts of the Karakoram (especially the Trango Towers), the Fitzroy Massif, Patagonia, Baffin Island, Ogawayama, the Cornish coast
Cornish is the adjective and demonym associated with Cornwall, the most southwesterly part of the United Kingdom. It may refer to:
* Cornish language, a Brittonic Southwestern Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Corn ...
, the Cairngorms, Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the Stawamus Chief, British Columbia, Canada.
Gallery
File:St. Louis wharf cobbles 20090121 1.jpg, Granite was used for setts
A sett, also known as a block or Belgian block, is a broadly rectangular quarried stone used in paving roads and walkways. Formerly in widespread use, particularly on steeper streets because setts provided horses' hooves with better grip tha ...
on the St. Louis riverfront and for the piers of the Eads Bridge (background)
File:Torres del Paine, Patagonia (2004).jpg, The granite peaks of the Cordillera Paine in the Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
an Patagonia
File:Yosemite 20 bg 090404.jpg, alt=Half Dome, Yosemeite National Park, Half Dome
Half Dome is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape. One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smo ...
, Yosemite National Park, is actually a granite arête and is a popular rock climbing destination
File:Rixö granitbrott 4.jpg, Rixö red granite quarry in Lysekil, Sweden
File:Auyuittuq National Park, Baffin Island, Nunavut -c.jpg, Granite in Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, Canada
File:Paarl Mountain04.jpg, Granite in Paarl, South Africa
See also
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References
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Further reading
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External links
{{Authority control
Felsic rocks
National symbols of Finland
Plutonic rocks
Sculpture materials
Symbols of Wisconsin
Industrial minerals