From Latin "granite" is translated as "grain". It is a granular volcanic massive rock, which was formed in the process of gradual cooling and solidification of magma at a fairly large depth. In addition, its origin is possible during metamorphism, in other words, during the granitization of various rocks. Very often, granite massifs are attributed to igneous, metamorphic and mixed origin. Granite is the most common rock in the earth's crust.
Given its characteristics, we can say that it is a very durable material, due to which it is very common in construction. One of the most important characteristics of the breed is its high strength.
Quality
- Strength. Granite is a rock that is resistant to abrasion, compression and friction. It is a very dense stone (when compressed, its strength is 90-250 MPa).
- Durability. Fine-grained granite begins to show the first signs of destruction after 500 years, which is why it is also called "eternal" stone.
- Resistant to acids and atmosphericphenomena. Granite is the best stone for the exterior of houses.
- Sustainability. The natural radiation level of the main amount of granites corresponds to the first class. In other words, they are radiation safe, which means they are suitable for any type of construction.
- Water resistant. This is also an excellent characteristic of granite. It hardly absorbs moisture. That is why the stone is suitable for facing buildings, embankments, etc.
- We alth of textures. An unpolished rough stone that absorbs light, as well as polished to an amazing brilliance, showing the world the play of light inclusions of mica - the decorative possibilities of such a mineral can embody the most complex ideas of designers.
- Huge color palette. The most common is a gray mineral, although there are also red granite, orange, pink, bluish-green, bluish-gray.
- Compatibility with other materials. It goes well with metal, wood, ceramics and other materials that are used in today's construction. He will be able to "fit" into every interior - from ultra-modern to classic.
Granites by grain size are divided into:
- fine-grained;
- medium;
- coarse-grained.
If we consider a fine-grained stone, then the characteristics of this type of granite will be very different from the rest. This group resists mechanical stress much better. During operation, it wears out more evenly, withless cracking when heated, resistant to weathering.
This group is the most expensive and high quality. Differs in resistance to destruction, water tightness and high durability. Coarse-grained samples are characterized by insufficient fire resistance. When heated above 600 ° C, they begin to crack and increase in volume. Because of what, sometimes cracked granite stairs and steps can often be seen in houses after fires.
Despite the excellent density and strength, the stone is easily processed: polished, ground and cut. It has excellent thermal conductivity, which is why it is often used for heaters.
Of course, the above characteristics are considered the advantages of this material. But granite stone also has disadvantages. The main disadvantage is its large weight, due to which it is one of the heaviest finishing materials. This characteristic should be taken into account when creating construction projects.
Structural and chemical composition
Granite is a rock that has a granular-crystalline structure. It is rich in alkalis, rich in silicic acid, and contains less iron, magnesium and calcium.
Composition of the mineral in its average values:
- feldspars - 60-65%;
- quartz - 25-30%;
- dark colored minerals - 5-10%.
The color of the rock primarily depends on the nature of the feldspars present in the composition. Most often, its color is gray with various shades: red, pink, blue-gray, orange, sometimes bluish-green.
In addition, dark-colored components influence the formation of the shade. These elements often give the rock a dark color, usually greenish. An example of this is Yantsevsky granite.
But quartz is most often colorless, therefore, it does not affect the nature of the color. At the same time, sometimes you can find a mineral with black quartz, less often - lilac-pink. Minerals with blue quartz are considered very rare. The most decorative characteristics are in fine-grained light gray specimens with a blue tint. In addition, green-blue and red granite are in great demand.
Appearance
As mentioned above, the mineral is actively used in construction. And this is easily explained. Granite is an igneous rock that is highly polished. The resulting mirror surface is preserved for a long time even in the case of using the material in the outer cladding.
Also, the stone lends itself well to processing, it easily takes on different forms. The relief texture of the granite surface emphasizes the monumentality of buildings, gives an interesting decorative effect of the play of chiaroscuro.
At the same time, some types of stone get a decorative texture only after heat treatment. This applies mainly to light gray shades, which become almost sugar white after processing.
Deposits
The main form of occurrence are batholiths. They represent a large array with an area of several hectares. Most often, the rock occurs in the form of stocks, dikes, and other intrusive bodies. Sometimes the mineral formsseveral sheet-like bodies interspersed with metamorphic and sedimentary rocks.
Granite is found on every continent. It mainly comes to the surface in those areas that were composed of ancient rocks, where, due to the erosion-denudation process, the overlying deposits were destroyed.
So, in the USA, this breed is found in the north of the country, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in the Black Hills and the center of the Ozark plateau. The stone is mined in Georgia, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Vermont.
It is also common in our country. About 200 granite deposits are being exploited in the post-Soviet space. The largest of them are: Mokryanskoe, Malokokhnovskoe, Mikashevichi.
On the territory of the Russian Federation, granite is most common in the Karelian-Kola region, Eastern Siberia, the Urals, the Far East and the Caucasus. Today, about fifty deposits are known in which piece mineral is mined. Granite crushed stone and rubble are mined in Ladoga, Prionezhye, in the Arkhangelsk and Voronezh regions, on the Karelian Isthmus, in the Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions, in the Khabarovsk Territory and Primorye, in Eastern Transbaikalia. Rapakivi mined in the north-west of the country are distinguished by excellent decorative characteristics, in addition, amazanite species of Transbaikalia and the Ilmensky mountains are also valued. Many deposits do not work constantly, mainly for crushed stone and quarrystone. Blocks of granite are mined in them, as needed, and facing slabs are made from them.
There are several types of granite, we will consider them in the article below.
Gabbro-diabase
This is a durable, uniform, black-colored mountain granite with small patches of gray. It perfectly accumulates, and then gives off heat, heats up evenly throughout the mass, does not lose the quality of polishing and artistic properties longer than all rocks.
This stone is considered a 1st class building material. It does not emit any harmful impurities, it is completely non-radioactive. At the same time, Karelian gabbro-diabase is a unique rock that has no analogues in other regions of our country.
The mineral is used for the production of road block stone (mosaic checker, paving stones, curbs), for the manufacture of interior items and various ritual products, in precision engineering, for landscape design, as a socle stone in construction. Ideally suited for interior decoration and facade cladding of buildings, partly used for crushed stone and rubble, used for heaters in saunas and baths.
There are 3 main block stone mining areas in the world:
- Ukrainian gabbro-diabase, which is inferior to Karelian in quality, although almost twice cheaper. It contains a huge amount of iron impurities, and this worsens the quality of finished products, while the pattern applied to the stone quickly fades.
- Australian gabbro-diabase, similar in quality to Karelian gabbro, although much more expensive.
- Karelian gabbro-diabase, which has a black color, low abrasion, high decorative properties, durability,frost resistance, retains the pattern applied to it for a long time.
Based on the ratio of quality and price, there is usually a higher demand for Karelian gabbro-diabase. At the same time, it is steadily increasing every year. The popularity of the Karelian mineral is due to its durability and strength. This stone is almost not subject to the negative influence of the environment. It retains its properties much longer than marble, and the very first signs of destruction appear only after a hundred years.
"Shansi Black" (Chinese granite)
Chinese granite is a black rock considered one of the finest in the world. It is mined in the north of China, in the province of Shanxi. Its main advantage is a rich and deep black color with a small amount of inclusions. It is used for facade cladding, interior decoration, the manufacture of products for various purposes, monuments and monuments.
Shoksha
This crimson granite, the price of which is very affordable - about 10,000 rubles / t, is mined in the Republic of Karelia. It is durable and highly durable. Experts say that products made from it will not lose their shape for more than 600 years. He decorated mausoleums, palaces, monuments. The inscriptions and the engraved portrait on the shoksha look in contrast.
Kapustinsky granite
This is an uneven and coarse-grained, pink-red, bright, massive, highly decorative granite, reviews of which speak of its incredible beauty. The area of use is suitable for the production of pedestals, as well as for other architectural structures, for finishingelements of structures and buildings, in those places where high architectural expressiveness is required. It was used in the decoration of the Temple of Memory, located on Poklonnaya Gora, Manezhnaya Square. There is a deposit in the Kirov region, Ukraine.
Labradorite
It is a natural stone, which is a mountain granular-crystalline rock. Labradorites appear in igneous depths. They are mainly composed of plagioclase, which is feldspar. The structure of minerals is crystalline. It is divided into medium-grained and coarse-grained rocks.
Labradorite is a type of anorthosite. They got their name from their original deposit - this is the name of the peninsula in Canada. Today, this natural stone is mined in other countries, including Ukraine and Finland. There are also large deposits in Russia. The first mineral structures were found in Kievan Rus - then this granite was used exclusively as a facing stone, then monumental buildings began to be finished with it.
Mostly this granite is gray or black. Dark-colored minerals just give the stone a beautiful dark shade. The main properties of labradorites are their frost resistance and high strength. Consequently, these stones are most often used for exterior decoration of buildings.
In addition, granite is distinguished by structural and textural properties.
Porphyry
This Ural granite contains elongated or isometric inclusions, which fromthe main mass differ in size (can reach 10 centimeters). Usually represented by orthoclase, quartz and microcline.
Pegmatoid
This is a granite rock with a uniform characteristic grain size. The size of the inclusions of feldspar and quartz is about 3 centimeters.
Finland granite
This granite is an igneous rock with characteristic rounded numerous inclusions of red orthoclase up to five centimeters in size, surrounded by a border of gray-green or gray oligoclase. The aggregate of grains of orthoclase, plagioclase, hornblende, quartz and biotite acts as the main mass in it.
Gneissic
This Ural granite is a uniformly fine-grained ordinary stone with a characteristic roughly parallel orientation of hornblende grains or mica flakes.
Pegmatite Granite
One of the most common varieties is pegmatite granite, consisting of muscovite, quartz and orthoclase. A characteristic representative of this variety is the so-called written granite, in which feldspar grows in small wedge-shaped quartz formations.
Leznikovsky granite
The red and pink-red Leznikovsky granite, which received this name from the name of its deposit, is especially durable and popular. It should be noted that many types of granite are named in this way. For example, a red stone - Mezhdurechensky, Simonovsky, Tokovsky, Emelyanovsky, Kapustinsky. But gray granite is Korninsky, Pokostovsky,Zhezhelevsky, Sofievsky.
Rapakivi
Another one interesting variety of the mineral is rapakivi. It is a porphyritic formation with a huge content of ovoids.
White Granite
There is also white granite. What rock it is, not everyone can immediately answer. This concept is more collective, since both snow-white stones and other minerals of light shades are called white. Color may vary from pearl gray to light green.
Application
In today's construction, granite is so actively used that it can be called a truly versatile material.
Interior details
Cornices, window sills, railings, skirting boards, countertops, bar counters, coffee tables, columns, balusters - the high strength of the stone will allow you to order these products from granite, while they will remain unharmed for many years.
Stairs, floors
Granite is a low abrasion material. If a million people walk up the stairs in your apartment in a year, they can erase its steps by a maximum of 0.12 millimeters.
Interior and facade decoration
Granite is a very ergonomic material that can give you a very comfortable stay in a building.
Landscape design
Rockery, alpine slide, decorative ponds, Japanese gardens made of granite, your site will give originality and naturalness.
Curbs, paving stones, steps
GraniteIt is used with success in those places where great "endurance" is required. The mineral is resistant to chemical pollution, mechanical stress, and temperature changes, since it does not change its properties during many cycles of thawing and freezing.
Facing embankments
Granite almost does not absorb moisture, which means that when the temperature drops from frozen water, internal additional pressure is not formed in the pores of the stone, which can lead to the destruction of the rock and the formation of cracks.
Granite paving stones
The use of paving stones from this stone dates back thousands of years. The ancient Roman famous paved roads can still be walked today; you can find cobblestone streets in the old part of every European capital; in the modern world, when the processing of granite does not cause any difficulty for craftsmen, stone roads are also gradually replacing concrete and asph alt.
Magical Properties
It may seem at first glance that the granite, the photo of which is presented in this article, does not have any magical properties, since in modern apartments and houses it is actively used for interior decoration, which means that it carries only aesthetic component. But there is evidence that this mineral is able to make a person's life better.
Baths were built from granite in the old days. It has always been the cleanest place in which a person could relax. Here we are talking not only about the attractiveness and external gloss of the stone, but also about the fact that the mineral canprotect the premises and the person from negative energy.
There is a well-known phrase: "Gnawing on the granite of science." She came into use not by chance. Granite (which rock is meant is not important) has the ability to stimulate sociability and mental activity.
Red granite helps a person to find mutual understanding with the world, increases his intuition, while making its owner more responsive and flexible.
Healing properties
Granite, the photo of which can be seen in our review, has a wide range of healing properties that can alleviate the course of various serious diseases. Among them are pneumonia, asthma, cardiovascular diseases, bronchitis.
Stone for colds helps to lower the temperature, has a positive effect on the spine and joints when there are problems with them.
Talisman
Granite is the best talisman for people who have devoted their lives to pedagogy or science. The mineral sharpens intuition, strengthens memory, develops rational thinking, etc.
Granite products can be excellent amulets for teachers and teachers, they can help find an approach to stubborn and difficult students, as well as gain authority from them.
Granite is a mineral with unconditional positive energy that does no harm to anyone, therefore, you should not be afraid of it.
Granite: reviews
Since granite is very popular in construction, where, by the way, it has been used for more than one hundred years, reviews about itit won't be hard to find. Almost everyone who has had to deal with this wonderful material admires its high strength and excellent performance. Others are somewhat intimidated by its cost. But in this case, it must be borne in mind that different types of minerals may have different prices. Therefore, you can always choose the right option for yourself.
