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Glite Dictionary
granodiorite

granodiorite

9.9
A hard rock like granite with large grains and more light minerals
  • noun
  • /ˌɡrænəˈdɔɪəˌraɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : granodiorita
  • The cliff is composed of El Capitan granite (102 million years old) and Sentinel granodiorite.

Examples

  • The building's foundation is made of durable granodiorite, ensuring its stability for many years.

  • It is composed of Sentinel granodiorite, which is about 93 million years old.

    Blog text (29)

  • Quartz-biotite pseudomorph after orthopyroxene in a granodiorite from the I-type Budduso pluton in Sardinia, Italy.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Now geologists at Seven Stones Mining have discovered a golden seam at the very top of the South American granodiorite intrusions, an unlikely and unlooked-for offshoot of those legendary lodes now dug up and abandoned.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Geologists often study granodiorite samples to understand the history of volcanic activity in the region.

  • In the park, you can see large boulders of granodiorite scattered along the hiking trails.

Synonyms

igneous rock
vsgranodiorite
  • Specialized
1 4.1

A hard, solid material that forms when hot, melted rock cools

is coarser grained and richer in plagioclase than most rocks from cooled magma
plutonic rock
vsgranodiorite
  • Specialized
8.7

A rock that forms when melted rock deep underground cools slowly

is a coarse-grained variety formed deep underground with more plagioclase feldspar

Surface Forms

granodiorite singular
granodiorites plural

Morphology

granodiorite = diorite (opaque) = grano + diorite

Built from the combining form 'grano-' plus the specialized geological term 'diorite'; the combining form is not a standalone English morpheme and the technical base is unfamiliar to average learners.

Etymology

Granodiorite comes from the names granite and diorite, and the grano- part means 'grain', because you can see the small mineral grains in the rock. So granodiorite is like a 'mix' of granite and diorite, which explains why it is a coarse-grained rock with a different blend of minerals.