Porphyritic

This article is about a rock texture. For the type of rock, see Porphyry (geology).
Porphyritic texture in a granite. This is an intrusive porphyritic rock. The white, square feldspar phenocrysts are much larger than crystals in the surrounding matrix; eastern Sierra Nevada, Rock Creek Canyon, California.
A porphyritic volcanic sand grain, as seen under the petrographic microscope. The large grain in the middle is of a much different size class than the small needle-like crystals around it. Scale box in millimeters.

Porphyritic is an adjective used in geology to describe igneous rocks with a distinct difference in the size of mineral crystals, with the larger crystals known as phenocrysts. Both extrusive and intrusive rocks can be porphyritic, meaning all types of igneous rocks can display some degree of porphyritic texture.[1][2] Most porphyritic rocks have bimodal size ranges, meaning the rock is composed of two distinct sizes of crystal.[3]

In extrusive rocks, the phenocrysts are surrounded by a fine-grained (aphanitic) matrix or groundmass of volcanic glass or non-visible crystals, commonly seen in porphyritic basalt. Porphyritic intrusive rocks have a matrix with individual crystals easily distinguished with the eye, but one group of crystals appearing clearly much bigger than the rest, as in a porphyritic granite.

The term comes from the Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphyra), meaning "purple". Purple was the color of royalty, and the "imperial porphyry" was a deep purple igneous rock with large crystals of plagioclase, prized for monuments and building projects due to its hardness. Subsequently, the name was adapted to describe any igneous rocks with a similar texture.[4]

  1. ^ Dietrich, R. and Skinner, B. (1979). Rocks and Rock Minerals. See p. 108.
  2. ^ Cvancara, Alan M. (1995). A field manual for the amateur geologist (Rev. ed.). New York: Wiley. p. 181. ISBN 0-471-04430-X. OCLC 30508970.
  3. ^ "ignchrt.html". www.appstate.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  4. ^ "porphyry". Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1991. p. 1701. ISBN 0195046528.