Conway granite Conway granite Conway granite is a typically pink mineral-rich igneous (or mesoperthitic) biotite granite. It is amphibole-free and of coarse particle size (with portions of the rock fine-grained or porphyritic). Conway granite has a relatively high concentration of thorium, at about 56 (±6) PPM; this amount is not enough to make the granite dangerously radioactive, but it is sufficient to make the rock a low-grade (almost certainly not economic, at least in the early years) source of thorium for a thorium fuel cycle. Geologist Edward Hitchcock named the granite in 1877 after the town of Conway, New Hampshire, which is
Exfoliating granite a couple hundred feet thick, separates from the underlying granite along an expansion joint to form a shell. As this continues, several concentric shells may form to depths of feet or more. Concentric slabs/shells of rock begin to break loose, onion-like layers subparallel to the exterior called exfoliating, sheet jointing, or fractures. As the granite expands the outer, most shells become susceptible to weathering by water pressure, freeze/thaw cycles, and functioning vegetation is a process called physical weathering. The sheets of granite are large enough to shave off sharp edges on the granite’s surface creating a dome shape. The overall