Massachusetts State Building and
Monument Stone

Granite

Adopted in 1983.

Granite was made the building rock of the State in 1983. The last Ice Age did leave Massachusetts with exceptionally fine samples of this rock; granite from Quincy was used to build the Washington Monument.

The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the grained structure of such a crystalline rock

Granite is an igneous stone, one that is produced by intense heat. Granite is formed from liquid magma deep beneath the earth. Extreme pressures and a slow cooling process bake granite into one of the hardest and densest stones on the planet.

Granite occurs as stock-like masses and as batholiths often associated with mountain ranges and frequently of great extent. Granite has been intruded into the crust of the Earth during all geologic periods, except perhaps the most recent; much of it is of Precambrian age. Granite is widely distributed throughout the Earth.

The chief minerals of which granites are formed are feldspars and quartz and smaller amounts of mica and hornblende. They are classified as fine-grained, medium-grained, or coarse-grained. Medium-grained granites are those in which the feldspar crystals average about ¼ inch (6mm) in diameter. If relatively coarse-grained crystals appear in a fine grained groundmass the rock is designated as porphyritic granite. A rock may have the mineral constituents of granite but may show a banded or platy structure owing to recrystallization, folding, or other changes while the rock was in a plastic or semi-molten condition. Such metamorphic rocks are called granite gneisses.
 

Because of its hardness and comparative cheapness in relation to marble, granite is often used to make kitchen countertops. A granite countertop can be cut in any shape, and it is virtually unscratchable. Very hot pots must not be placed onto it though, because the temperature differential could possibly crack the granite

Among the most popular, the hardest, and the oldest of geosymbols, granite is an official symbol of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

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