Types Of Granite

For those of you who believed that all rocks are the same, let us clarify that they are not. There are various types of rocks that exist on the planet. Amongst them, one of the most popular types is granite. Belonging to the family of igneous rocks, granites are made by cooling down an intrusion of magma into the rocks that form the earth’s crust. Granite is fairly common all over the world, occurring from depths in between 1.5 km to 50 km, below the earth’s surface. Granites have become a popular choice for variety of uses in housing or industrial situations. Though there are different parameters which are used to distinguish between the different kinds of granite, in the following lines, we have dealt with the most common division, i.e. on the basis of color.

 

This is definitely one of most popular choices in modern home decorating, because of its effective hue. However, don’t get fooled by dark-colored granite, thinking it to be the black one, as in reality, there is no true black granite available. This is because the infinitely varying textures render it next to impossible to attain the true black appearance. This can be attributed to the combination of quartz, feldspar or microline. The major sources for black granite lie in the quarries of India, Australia, South Africa and Sweden. The base texture is somewhat same and the overall visual pattern is also consistent. The high quartz present in black granite give it a well-textured appearance.

 

Just like the black granite, white granite is also a misleading name, because the ‘true’ form of white granite is again not available. This is because of the chemical compositions and stratifications involved. The commercially available white granite is always a variant with slightly distorted shade of a white base, with grey and black combination or a shade of ivory. The leading producers of white granite are China, Italy and Brazil.

 

Also known as Azul granite, these rocks have a predominant blue color, as you might expect from the name. It is the second most popular choice, right next to black granite for the variety that you get with them. These are not solidly blue and normally contain heavy patterns of whites and other shades of blue, black and gray. Brazil and Spain are the primary locations for this type of granite. If you are looking to refurbish your home in a designer avatar, blue granite is the right choice.

 

Green is the most fashionable color in this age of environmental thinking. One more thing that makes green one of the hottest granite colors is the innumerable variations provided by this hue; arguably the most in any color of granite. Though the base color of the granite remains green, granites from different parts of the world exhibit different mixes of complimentary colors. For example, while the green granite from Indian subcontinent is complimented by shades of gray and pink; the variants from Norway has a more aqueous and bluish appearance. There are also granite colors that include black striping as well as stone that has flecks of metallics, such as gold.

Pink or rose granite is the rarest variation of granite, mainly due to the fact that the chemicals working together to give this color rarely get together in such proportions to react so. It is still relatively easy to find red color as base, but true rose as a base color is relatively unusual. The major sources for these variants are in Brazil and China. Usually base color varies from rose to lavender and the complimentary colors include white and yellow.

These metallic hues though not rare, are popular choices for designer constructions. These include metallic elements such as gold, copper or any other common metals in the region. Metallic granite is found around the world, but Brazil and Italy are the leaders with maximum deposits located. These usually have white, black or gray as the base color with sharp contrasting complimentary metallic hues, which aids to rich designs in home décor.