Granite/Marble Tile(s)

Granite Countertop(s)

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock.

Granites are usually medium to coarse grained, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their chemistry and mineralogy.

Granite primarily consists of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars, quartz, hornblende, muscovite and/or biotite micas, and minor accessory minerals such as magnetite, garnet, zircon and apatite. Rarely, a pyroxene is present. Very rarely, iron-rich olivine, fayalite, occurs.

Granite is currently known only on Earth where it forms a major part of continental crust. Granite occurs as relatively small, less than 100 km² stock-like masses and as large batholiths often associated with orogenic mountain ranges and is frequently of great extent. Small dikes of granitic composition called aplites are associated with granite margins. In some locations very coarse-grained pegmatite masses occur with granite.

Granite has been intruded into the crust of the Earth during all geologic periods; much of it is of Precambrian age. Granite is widely distributed throughout the continental crust of the Earth and is the most abundant basement rock that underlies the relatively thin sedimentary veneer of the continents.

Despite being fairly common throughout the world, the areas with the most commercial granite quarries are located in the Scandinavian Peninsula (mostly in Finland and Norway), Spain (mostly Galicia and Extremadura), Brazil, India and several countries in the South end of the African continent, namely Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Granite is an igneous rock and is formed from magma. Granite magma has many potential origins but it must intrude other rocks. Most granite intrusions are emplaced at depth within the crust, usually greater than 1.5 km and up to 50 km depth within thick continental crust.

The origin of granite is contentious and has led to varied schemes of classification. Classification schemes are regional; there is a French scheme, a British scheme and an American scheme. This confusion arises because the classification schemes define granite by different means. Generally the 'alphabet-soup' classification is used because it classifies based on genesis or origin of the magma.

Granite has been extensively used as a dimension stone and as flooring tiles in public and commercial buildings and monuments. With increasing amounts of acid rain in parts of the world, granite has begun to supplant marble as a monument material, since it is much more durable. Polished granite has been a popular choice for kitchen countertops due to its high durability and aesthetic qualities.

Marble is a metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite (a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, CaCO₃). It is extensively used for sculpture, as a building material, and in many other applications. The word 'marble' is colloquially used to refer to many other stones that are capable of taking a high polish.

Faux marble or faux marbling is a wall painting technique that imitates the color patterns of real marble (not to be confused with paper marbling). Marble dust can be combined with cement or synthetic resins to make reconstituted or cultured marble.