Mafic The mafic rocks also typically have a higher density than felsic rocks. The term roughly corresponds to the older "basic rock" class. Mafic lava, before cooling, has a low viscosity, in comparison with felsic lava, due to the lower silica content in mafic magma. Water and other volatiles can more easily and gradually escape from mafic lava. As a result, eruptions of volcanoes made of mafic lavas are less explosively violent than felsic-lava eruptions. Most mafic-lava volcanoes are shield volcanoes, like those in Hawaii. Mafic Mafic is an adjective describing a silicate mineral or igneous rock that is rich in
Archean felsic volcanic rocks (b) melting of felsic materials (e.g. TTG and/or sediments) formed younger potassium-rich GMS (see Table 3). They imply gradual chemical changes of the in the magma and the Earth's crust. Records of Archean felsic volcanic rocks shows a peculiar trend. The eruption of felsic volcanic rocks and plutonic activities in Archean are largely synchronised as show in overlapping zircon ages. On contrary, the chemical compositions of some felsic volcanic rocks are similar to that of GMS but they are much older than GMS. For example, a GMS-like rhyolite unit in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt (abnormally more enriched in potassium and