What is diabase used for?
Diabase is crushed and used as a construction aggregate for road beds, buildings, railroad beds (rail ballast), and within dams and levees. Diabase can be cut for use as headstones and memorials; the base of the Marine Corps War Memorial is made of black diabase “granite” (a commercial term, not actual granite).
Is gabbro fine-grained?
Gabbro is mafic, intrusive, coarse-grained rock with allotriomorphic texture.
Is basalt coarse or fine-grained?
Basalt is a fine-grained mafic igneous rock. It is commonly vesicular and aphanitic.
What is the size of diabase?
Diabase: slower cooling in shallow intrusions such as sills, dikes, lopoliths or laccoliths allowed individual crystals to grow slightly larger – up to about two millimeters in size.
How strong is diabase?
The strongest rock in the world in compression is Diabase, which can stand up to 350 MPa.
What is unique about diabase?
It is extremely hard and tough and is commonly quarried for crushed stone, under the name of trap. Although not popular, it makes an excellent monumental stone and is one of the dark-coloured rocks commercially known as black granite.
What is the texture of gabbro?
Gabbro
| Type | Igneous Rock |
|---|---|
| Texture | Phaneritic (Coarse-grained) |
| Origin | Intrusive/Plutonic |
| Chemical Composition | Mafic |
| Color | Dark Gray |
What is the grain size of gabbro?
1 mm
Gabbro is generally coarse-grained, with crystals in the size range of 1 mm or larger. Finer-grained equivalents of gabbro are called diabase (also known as dolerite), although the term microgabbro is often used when extra descriptiveness is desired.
Is basalt fine grained?
basalt, extrusive igneous (volcanic) rock that is low in silica content, dark in colour, and comparatively rich in iron and magnesium. Some basalts are quite glassy (tachylytes), and many are very fine-grained and compact.
What are some fine grained rocks?
Fine grained rocks, where the individual grains are too small to see, are called aphanitic. Basalt is an example. The most common glassy rock is obsidian.
How hard is diabase rock?
diabase, also called Dolerite, fine- to medium-grained, dark gray to black intrusive igneous rock. It is extremely hard and tough and is commonly quarried for crushed stone, under the name of trap.
Is diabase the hardest rock?
The strongest rock in the world is diabase, followed closely by other fine-grained igneous rocks and quartzite. Diabase is strongest in compression, tension, and shear stress. If mineral hardness is the determining factor of strength then diamond is technically the strongest rock in the world.
What is the characteristics of gabbro?
Gabbro is a coarse-grained, dark-colored, intrusive igneous rock. It is usually black or dark green in color and composed mainly of the minerals plagioclase and augite. It is the most abundant rock in the deep oceanic crust.
What is the texture of basalt?
Basalts have almost always aphanitic or fine-grained mineral texture resulting from rapid cooling of volcanic magma.
Which of the following rock is extremely fine grained in structure?
Explanation: Basalt: Basalt is a dark-colored, fine-grained, igneous rock.
What is the toughest rock in the world?
Diamond
Diamond is the hardest known mineral, Mohs’ 10. Notes: It must be noted that Mohs’ scale is arbitrary and non-linear, i.e. the steps between relative hardness values are not necessarily equal. Rather, it is a method of gauging the relative hardness of a mineral.