Magmatic Rocks

Abstract

Magmatic rocks are often exposed at the Earth’s surface, either because they cooled at, or close to, the surface (e.g., volcanoes) or because they have been exhumed as a result of tectonics and erosion following solidification at depth (e.g., exhumation of large intrusive rock bodies). Understanding the formation and development of a magmatic province, requires a variety of field and laboratory investigations, with more detailed characterization of a magmatic body requiring chemical and isotopic analysis. Magmatic rocks can be divided into two groups: intrusive rocks, which cool and solidify from a magma within the Earth and extrusive rocks, which cool and solidify at the Earth’s surface.