What is the difference between mafic and ultramafic rocks?
In a widely accepted silica-content classification scheme, rocks with more than 65 percent silica are called felsic; those with between 55 and 65 percent silica are intermediate; those with between 45 and 55 percent silica are mafic; and those with less than 45 percent are ultramafic.
What is an example of an ultramafic rock?
An igneous rock with a very low silica content and rich in minerals such as hypersthene, augite, and olivine. These rocks are also known as ultramafic rocks. Examples include: peridotite, kimberlite, lamprophyre, lamproite, dunite, and komatiite.
How do you identify an ultramafic rock?
Ultramafic rocks are usually defined by their modal mineralogy. They have a color index greater than 90, where the term “color index” refers to the percentage of mafic minerals such as olivine and pyroxene present in the rock.
What are mafic rocks 2 examples?
Common mafic rocks include basalt and its coarse-grained intrusive equivalent, gabbro.
What is difference between ultramafic and ultrabasic?
As adjectives the difference between ultrabasic and ultramafic. is that ultrabasic is (geology) ultramafic while ultramafic is (geology) describing igneous rocks that contain magnesium and iron and only a very small amount of silica, such as are found in the earth’s mantle.
What is ultrabasic and ultramafic?
Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are composed of usually greater than 90% mafic minerals (dark colored, high magnesium …
What is the composition of ultramafic rocks?
Ultramafic metamorphic rocks result from the metamorphism of mantle rocks and some oceanic crust and contain dominantly magnesium, silicon, and carbon dioxide, with smaller amounts of iron, calcium, and aluminum.
What does mafic mean?
Definition of mafic : of, relating to, or being a group of usually dark-colored minerals rich in magnesium and iron.
What does mafic and ultramafic mean?
Igneous Rocks by Composition Igneous rocks are classified according to their mineral content: Ultramafic rocks are dominated by olivine and/or pyroxene. Mafic rocks are dominated by plagioclase and pyroxene (even if you can’t see them with the naked eye) and smaller amounts of olivine.
What is the difference between felsic and mafic rocks?
Either in describing rocks or lava, mafic means that the lava or rock has less silica while felsic implies that the lava or rock has the most silica. 6. Mafic rocks are darker in color than felsic rocks.
What is the main difference between felsic and mafic rocks?
The main difference between Mafic and Felsic rocks are the silica content present. Since igneous rocks are characterised by silica content in them, mafic is the one with less silica content (approx. 45-55%) while felsic is the one with a greater silica content (approx. 70-90%).