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Author: The Geology Toolkit Team

Diorite

Updated Tuesday, 28 September 2021

A brief description of the nature of diorite.

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Diorite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock. It contains large interlocking, randomly oriented crystals. It is a dark coloured rock, usually medium to dark grey, containing many mafic crystals.

Mostly it looks like dark coloured granite.

Diorite

How was it formed?
Diorite formed deep within the Earth’s crust from cooling magma that never made it to the surface. It usually occurs as quite small intrusions often associated with larger intrusions like granite. Slow cooling produces the large crystals.

Diorite forms from magma that does not contain a lot of quartz (silica) or the light coloured minerals that make up granite.

 

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