Granite general, descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks. Petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. The extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is rhyolite. Granite is nearly always massive (i.e., lacking any internal structures), hard, and tough. These properties have made granite a widespread construction stone throughout human history. The average density of granite is between , its compressive strength usually lies above 200 MPa, and its viscosity near STP is 3–6·10 Pa·s. The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is ; it is strongly reduced in the presence of water, down to
Granite This leads to significant extraction of hydrous felsic melts from granulite-facies resitites. A-type granites occur in the Koettlitz Glacier Alkaline Province in the Royal Society Range, Antarctica. The rhyolites of the Yellowstone Caldera are examples of volcanic equivalents of A-type granite. H-type granites were suggested for hybrid granites, which were hypothesized to form by mixing between mafic and felsic from different sources, e.g. M-type and S-type. However, the big difference in rheology between mafic and felsic magmas makes this process hardly happening in nature. An old, and largely discounted process, granitization states that granite is formed in place through extreme