Basalt And Granite Which One Is Older

The granite cuts through the schist in first photo and cuts the schist s foliation in the second.

Basalt and granite which one is older. Basalt is an extrusive or intrusive rock that makes up most of the world s oceanic crust. This specimen erupted from kilauea volcano in 1960. Basalt and granite are two types of igneous rocks that we can find on earth. Its principle minerals include pyroxene feldspar and olivine.

It forms from lava flows which extrude onto the surface and cool. Summary basalt vs granite. Summary of basalt vs. The granite formed from underground lava called magma about 100 million years ago.

The granite is much older than the basalt. There is no reason for some existing rock to preclude the later existence of a different sort of rock. It is common both on earth and other planetary bodies. Granite vs basalt characteristics.

The principle of cutting states when one feature cuts another the feature being cut is older the feature doing the cutting is younger. Basalt is fine grained so the individual minerals are not visible but they include pyroxene plagioclase feldspar and olivine these minerals are visible in the coarse grained plutonic version of basalt called gabbro. That s in the cretaceous period the last period in which the. Granite vs basalt characteristics assist us to distinguish and recognize rocks.

Characteristics of rocks include texture appearance color fracture streak hardness etc. Basalt is an igneous volcanic rock that forms commonly in oceanic crust and parts of continental crust. The key difference between basalt and granite is that basalt is mostly occurring on ocean floors while granite is in the crust of the earth in all continents. Basalt wikipedia wikimedia foundation 13 sept.