Pegmatite (granite) in nature
This is about pegmatite: an extraordinary and very striking rock that many refer to as quartzite, although this natural stone, thanks to its morphological composition, is more like granite.
For almost 60 years, we’ve been cutting and finishing marble and granite considering ourselves lucky to work with such a beautiful material…
Imagine photographing a granite slab and then increasing the zoom up to 100, what do you see? A pegmatite! Actually, we’re talking about a coarse-grained igneous rock, which consists of large crystals that are perfectly ‘set‘ like jewels in a necklace.
Pegmatite detail (granite)
Pegmatites were formed, when the Earth was populated by large volcanoes inside which different rocks melted into incandescent rivers, that over time created a unique flow, slowly and incessantly gliding, before cooling down.
From a geological point of view, the pegmatites were formed during the last period of magma granite genesis inside the Earth’s Crust at a depth of 6 to 20 km and at ‘low’ temperatures of approx. 400-600 degrees!
Under normal geological conditions, granite would have been created, instead a special magma with liquid accumulations (possibly water) was formed, filling the gaps between the rocks and creating some kind of ‘pocket‘, inside which the minerals could move. The rather low temperatures favoured a slow crystallization, which originated some crystals of considerable sizes.
Interesting facts about pegmatite
- Pegmatites can also contain rare minerals as lithium and tantalum.
- Some of these mineral crystals were very valuable (and are still today): emerald, topaz, aquamarine, zircon, and many others! Unfortunately, it’s not easy to find them, otherwise we would have opened a jewellery store long time ago, as we work with this natural stone daily. Therefore, we keep cutting beautiful pegmatite blocks into slabs, that will decorate and embellish your home as flooring, cladding, kitchen countertops, vanity tops or similar!
As mentioned above, pegmatite and granite are very similar rock types with common characteristics: resistance, strength, brilliance...
Despite these qualities, the building industry uses the finest pegmatites mainly for interior decoration. In our warehouse are exposed many breath-taking pegmatite slabs, if you want to learn more, go on reading!
Once again, nature has granted us a fascinating and wonderful natural stone with unique and inimitable aesthetics. Mother nature has created this natural stone with amazing graphic representations, colours and veins in tens of millions of years under unique conditions. That’s the great thing about natural stone: we only have to select the best blocks and process them to emphasize their beauty; that will allow you to decorate your home with a unique material that was created millions of years ago in the Earth’s womb - what an amazing story!
Coloured spots are cleverly combined with fascinating veins, creating surprising and unique effects, in an extraordinary painting of a real artist: Mother nature!
Pegmatites in our warehouse
Copenhagen
Copenaghen and Patagonia are geographical names of opposite places on our planet, but also two Brazilian pegmatites, whose slabs have large light spots in different shades of grey and beige, combined with coloured crystals. If you look at the photos, you will agree with us.
Copenhagen granite - pegmatite
Copenhagen granite - pegmatite detail
Patagonia
Patagonia granite - pegmatite
Patagonia granite - pegmatite detail
Copacabana
Copacabana is another igneous rock type, where pegmatite veins are mixed with metamorphic rocks, deformed before cooling. A pegmatite with a black background and clearly defined contours and colours with wavy pale or pink grains.
Copacabana granite - pegmatite
Copacabana granite - pegmatite detail
The pegmatite Alaska White has less clearly defined contours and a light grey background, whereas the background of Blue Dunes shows more colours.
Alaska White
Alaska White granite - pegmatite
Alaska White granite - pegmatite detail
Blue Dunes
Blu Dunes granite - pegmatite
Every time we write an article, we are determined to keep it informative but short, then the natural stone gets the upper hand and tells its story, always in a different and original way, so that we don’t have the heart to limit ourselves to a short summary!
Please don’t held it against us, maybe you are just as fascinated as we are by the magnificence of nature.
See you next time!