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Vesicular texture



 
 
Vesicular texture is a volcanic rock
Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
 texture characterised by, or containing, many vesicles. The texture is often found in extrusive aphanitic
Aphanite

Aphanite is a name given to certain typically dark-coloured igneous rocks which are so fine-grained that their component mineral crystals are not detected by the unaided eye....
, or glassy, igneous rock
Igneous rock

Igneous rock is one of the three main Rock types . Igneous rock is formed by magma being cooled and becoming solid . They may form with or without crystallization, either below the surface as Intrusion rocks or on the surface as extrusive rocks....
. The vesicles are small cavities formed by the expansion of bubbles of gas or steam during the solidification of the rock.

A related texture is amygdaloidal
Amygdaloid

Amygdaloid, derived from the Latin for almond, can refer to:* the amygdala in the brain.* any almond shape* a volcanic Rock Texture in which small volatile cavities or vesicular texture are filled with secondary minerals....
 in which the volcanic rock, usually basalt
Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually gray to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet....
 or andesite
Andesite

Andesite is an igneous rock, volcanic rock, of Igneous rock#Chemical classification, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende....
, has cavities, or vesicles, that are filled with secondary minerals, such as zeolites
Zeolite

Zeolites are Microporous material, aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial absorbents. The term zeolite was originally coined in 1756 by Sweden mineralogist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, who observed that upon rapidly heating the material stilbite, it produced large amounts of steam from water that had been absorbed by the material....
, calcite
Calcite

Calcite is a Carbonate minerals and the most stable Polymorphism of calcium carbonate . The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite....
, quartz
Quartz

Quartz is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust . It is made up of a Crystal structure of silica tetrahedra. Quartz has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale and a density of 2.65 g/cm?....
, or chalcedony
Chalcedony

Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of the minerals quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, whilst moganite is monoclinic....
.






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Olivine Basalt2
Vesicular texture is a volcanic rock
Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
 texture characterised by, or containing, many vesicles. The texture is often found in extrusive aphanitic
Aphanite

Aphanite is a name given to certain typically dark-coloured igneous rocks which are so fine-grained that their component mineral crystals are not detected by the unaided eye....
, or glassy, igneous rock
Igneous rock

Igneous rock is one of the three main Rock types . Igneous rock is formed by magma being cooled and becoming solid . They may form with or without crystallization, either below the surface as Intrusion rocks or on the surface as extrusive rocks....
. The vesicles are small cavities formed by the expansion of bubbles of gas or steam during the solidification of the rock.

A related texture is amygdaloidal
Amygdaloid

Amygdaloid, derived from the Latin for almond, can refer to:* the amygdala in the brain.* any almond shape* a volcanic Rock Texture in which small volatile cavities or vesicular texture are filled with secondary minerals....
 in which the volcanic rock, usually basalt
Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually gray to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet....
 or andesite
Andesite

Andesite is an igneous rock, volcanic rock, of Igneous rock#Chemical classification, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende....
, has cavities, or vesicles, that are filled with secondary minerals, such as zeolites
Zeolite

Zeolites are Microporous material, aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial absorbents. The term zeolite was originally coined in 1756 by Sweden mineralogist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, who observed that upon rapidly heating the material stilbite, it produced large amounts of steam from water that had been absorbed by the material....
, calcite
Calcite

Calcite is a Carbonate minerals and the most stable Polymorphism of calcium carbonate . The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite....
, quartz
Quartz

Quartz is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust . It is made up of a Crystal structure of silica tetrahedra. Quartz has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale and a density of 2.65 g/cm?....
, or chalcedony
Chalcedony

Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of the minerals quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, whilst moganite is monoclinic....
. Individual cavity fillings are termed amygdules (American usage), or amygdales (British usage). Sometimes these can be sources of semi-precious stones such as agate
Agate

Agate is a microcrystalline variety of quartz , chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks but can be common in certain metamorphic rocks....
.

Rock types that display a vesicular texture include pumice
Pumice

File:Pumice stone444.jpgFile:Pumice stone detail444.jpgPumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano....
 and scoria
Scoria

Scoria is a textural term for Vesicular texturevolcanic rock. It is commonly, but not exclusively, basaltic or andesite in composition. Scoria is light as a result of numerous macroscopic ellipsoidal vesicles, but most scoria has a specific gravity greater than 1, and sinks in water....
.