Porosity and density.
What has a lower density basalt or granite.
This is measured either as a decimal between 0 and 1 or as a percentage.
Its principle minerals include pyroxene feldspar and olivine.
It forms from lava flows which extrude onto the surface and cool.
This range of densities can also be attributed to a rock s porosity the amount of open space between mineral grains.
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.
Now how come the mass of granite is lesser than basalt.
It is common both on earth and other planetary bodies.
Summary of basalt vs.
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.
The density of basalt one of the most common kinds of terrestrial volcanic rocks can be as high as 3 0 g cm 3.
Basalt is an igneous volcanic rock that forms commonly in oceanic crust and parts of continental crust.
Some meteorites have low densities 3 0 g cm 3 but such meteorites are rare among meteorites.
In crystalline rocks like granite which have tight interlocking mineral grains porosity is normally quite low less than 1 percent.
The mass of granite and bas.
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.
Strictly speaking granite is an.
Granite ˈ ɡ r æ n ɪ t is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture.