Black Minerals In Granite

Look for a black streak and a strong attraction to a magnet.

Black minerals in granite.

Numerous other minerals can be present in granite. The grain size is coarse enough to allow recognition of the major minerals. The most common accessory minerals are the black mica biotite and the black amphibole hornblende. The specimen above is a typical granite.

The pink grains are orthoclase feldspar and the clear to smoky grains are quartz or muscovite. That light background color is punctuated by the darker accessory minerals. The quartz and feldspar generally give granite a light color ranging from pinkish to white. Magnetite or lodestone is a common accessory mineral in coarse grained igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks.

The black grains can be biotite or hornblende. White granite is a granite that is composed primarily of quartz milky white and feldspar opaque white minerals. Thus classic granite has a salt and pepper look. Color variation is a response to the percent of each mineral found in the sample.

It is about two inches across. Granite is high in quartz about 25 feldspar and mica. The small black specks in the granite above are likely small amphibole grains. Granite is the most common intrusive rock in earth s continental crust it is familiar as a mottled pink white gray and black ornamental stone it is coarse to medium grained.

Its three main minerals are feldspar quartz and mica which occur as silvery muscovite or dark biotite or both.