Skip to content

Microdiorite

A brief description of the nature of microdiorite

28 Sep
2006

Microdiorite is a medium-grained intrusive igneous rock. It contains crystals that are smaller than grains of rice, which are interlocking and randomly oriented. It is dark grey or greenish brown.

How was it formed?
Like diorite, microdiorite forms from magmas that do not contain much quartz (silica) or the light coloured minerals that make up granite. The crystals are smaller than those in Diorite, indicating that the magma cooled more quickly.

It usually occurs as small intrusions called ‘dykes’, which are sheet-like and cut through the surrounding rocks.

Rate and share this page:

You haven't rated. Average rating 5 out of 5, based on 1 rating

Share this page:

.

More like this

Comments

Be the first to post a comment.

Login or Register to post comments

Article Information

Publication details

Copyright information
• Body text - Copyrighted: The Open University

Article Feeds

If you enjoyed this, why not follow a feed to find out when we have new things like it? Choose an RSS feed from the list below. (Don't know what to do with RSS feeds?)
Remember, you can also make your own, personal feed by combining tags from around OpenLearn.

About OpenLearn

Hide

Explore

Try

Study

OU Courses

OpenLearn Now

Hide
Dickens: Want some more? Copyrighted Image iStock

Delve into the world of Dickens on his bicentenary.

Tag Clouds

Hide

My Cloud

Discover the latest about your passions - Sign In or Register and start a personal tag cloud.

What are Tag Clouds?
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/sites/all/themes/ole/flash/tagcloud.swf

Creative Commons License Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, content on this site is made available
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

/openlearn/sites/all/themes/ole/