Stone Science
Textures & fabrics
Scientific words for what you can see: grain size, sorting, alignment, and crystal relationships.
Vocabulary
Common texture terms
Texture/fabric terms are used across all rock types, but they mean slightly different things in each context.
Grain size
Aphanitic (fine), phaneritic (coarse), pegmatitic (very coarse), glassy (no crystals).
Crystal relationships
Equigranular, porphyritic (phenocrysts + groundmass), interlocking, poikilitic.
Sedimentary textures
Sorting, rounding, matrix vs. cement, clast-supported vs. matrix-supported.
Metamorphic fabrics
Foliation, schistosity, gneissic banding, lineation, granoblastic texture.
Texture examples
A visual set of textures and fabrics referenced in scientific descriptions.
Back to Stone Science
Return to the overview page to continue into geochemistry and rock-forming minerals.