Rhyolite Vs Granite

Rhyolite can be considered as the extrusive equivalent to the plutonic granite rock and consequently outcrops of rhyolite may bear a resemblance to granite.

Rhyolite vs granite.

A great excess of potassium over sodium uncommon in granite except as a consequence of hydrothermal alteration is not uncommon in rhyolites. Rhyolite is the felsic igneous rock with fine grained size. Properties of rock is another aspect for granite vs rhyolite. The difference is that granite sits on the plutonic diagram and rhyolite sits on the volcanic diagram.

Appearance of granite is veined or pebbled and that of rhyolite is banded. As nouns the difference between granite and rhyolite is that granite is rock a group of igneous and plutonic rocks composed primarily of feldspar and quartz usually contains one or more dark minerals which may be mica pyroxene or amphibole granite is quarried for building stone road gravel decorative stone and tombstones common colors are gray white pink and yellow brown while rhyolite is geology an igneous volcanic extrusive rock of felsic composition with aphanitic to. Due to their high content of silica and low iron and magnesium contents rhyolitic magmas form highly viscous lavas. In most granites the alkali feldspar is a soda poor microcline or microcline perthite.

They have very similar compositions but one is erupted onto earth s surface and the other crystallises at depth. In most rhyolites however it is sanidine not infrequently rich in soda. Granite is plutonic and rhyolite is volcanic. Whereas granite is the equivalent in composition but with coarse grained size.

Muscovite a common mineral in granite occurs very rarely and only as an alteration product in rhyolite. So they have a similar composition but one is volcanic and the other is plutonic. Hardness of granite and rhyolite is 6 7.