Excited to finally see my very first volcano up close, my older sister and I arrived on the Big Island to examine and explore the Kilauea volcano. The volcano had just erupted a couple weeks back and we were wondering if we could find any gorgeous rocks to add to my collection of rocks back at home. Not even a few steps on the volcano, my sister and I spotted some basaltic igneous rocks! Walking towards the extrusive igneous rock I asked my sister, "Did you know that basaltic rocks are the most common extrusive igneous rock and is formed from the upper mantle of the Earth?" I could tell she was uninterested when she replied with a simple "no." Since the volcano had erupted quite a bit ago, I had the opportunity to share about the mineral compositions of basaltic igneous rocks. As I picked up an already cooled basalt rock I said, "This basalt rock is considered a mafic igneous rock which is composed of mainly two minerals: Plagioclase feldspar (light colored mineral which are rich in sodium and calcium) and Pyroxene (dark colored mineral ). Texture in geology is basically the size, shape, and arrangement of the mineral grains. Do you see this texture here? This is known as fine-grained texture or aphanitic texture and is influenced by how fast the molten-formed rock cools and the amount of silica and dissolved gases were in the magma. Since this rock is aphanitic, we now know that this rock cooled rapidly!" Turning back, I could tell my sister was proud when she told me, "You're such a nerd, but that was actually quite impressive bro."
Ce-Jay Locquiao
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