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What is the hardness of pegmatite?

What is the hardness of pegmatite?

7
According to Wikipedia, Pegmatites are Extreme Igneous Rocks. Here, extremity means more than one thing. What Is Pegmatite? It is the final stage of the crystallization of the magma….Properties of Pegmatites Stones.

Parameter Values
Hardness 7
Grains Medium to coarse
Fracture Conchoidal
Streak White

What is pegmatite good for?

Pegmatite is often mined for industrial minerals. Large sheets of mica are mined from pegmatite. These are used to make components for electronic devices, retardation plates, circuit boards, optical filters, detector windows, and many other products. Feldspar is another mineral frequently mined from pegmatite.

Is pegmatite very coarse?

Pegmatite, almost any wholly crystalline igneous rock that is at least in part very coarse grained, the major constituents of which include minerals typically found in ordinary igneous rocks and in which extreme textural variations, especially in grain size, are characteristic.

Are pegmatites rare?

Rare elements concentrated in large crystals make pegmatite a potential source of valuable ore. Rare earth elements are so named not because they are actually rare but because they are usually found within other minerals, which makes them difficult and costly to mine.

Is pegmatite extrusive or intrusive?

Most pegmatites are intrusive rocks found in sheets of rock (dikes and veins) near large masses of igneous rocks called batholiths.

Is pegmatite a texture?

PEGMATITE is a common plutonic rock, of variable texture and coarseness, that is composed of interlocking crystals of widely different sizes. The most spectacular pegmatites contain abnormally large crystals mixed with medium sized and smaller crystals. Crystals up to many meters long have been reported.

How do you distinguish between a granite and pegmatite?

Pegmatite is chemically identical to granite, but has a much coarser crystal structure. Common colors are gray, white, and pink. Pegmatite is quarried for decorative stone and as a source of beryllium, columbium and tantalum when these are present.

How are granite and pegmatite different?

Is pegmatite intrusive igneous rock?

Pegmatite is a holocrystalline (completely crystalline), intrusive igneous rock. With a basic composition similar to that of granite, Pegmatite tends to be composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica. It is made of interlocking phaneritic crystals that are typically bigger than 2.5cm (or 1 inch) in size.

Why is pegmatite an economically important igneous rock?

Pegmatite is an extremely coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock composed of large interlocking crystals. Pegmatite is an economically-important rock because it is the source material for lithium, cesium, and rare earth elements and because it may hold large gemstones.