Now how come the mass of granite is lesser than basalt.
What has a lower density basalt or granite.
This range of densities can also be attributed to a rock s porosity the amount of open space between mineral grains.
Earth contains three kinds of rocks namely igneous rocks sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks basalt and granite are two types of igneous rocks.
Its principle minerals include pyroxene feldspar and olivine.
It is common both on earth and other planetary bodies.
In crystalline rocks like granite which have tight interlocking mineral grains porosity is normally quite low less than 1 percent.
For example limestone 2 6 g cm 3 or less quartzite 2 7 g cm 3 and granite 2 7 2 8 g cm 3 are all common low density rocks.
Summary of basalt vs.
The mass of granite and bas.
Density is a mass per volume let say if we have same ammount of volume granite and basalt what make granite less dense is because it has less mass than basalt.
Some meteorites have low densities 3 0 g cm 3 but such meteorites are rare among meteorites.
Basalt is an igneous volcanic rock that forms commonly in oceanic crust and parts of continental crust.
It forms from lava flows which extrude onto the surface and cool.
Granites can be predominantly white pink or gray in color depending on their mineralogy the word granite comes from the latin granum a grain in reference to the coarse grained structure of such a completely crystalline rock.
This is measured either as a decimal between 0 and 1 or as a percentage.
Strictly speaking granite is an.
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.
The density of basalt one of the most common kinds of terrestrial volcanic rocks can be as high as 3 0 g cm 3.