FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Christine Mathis]

I’ve seen some posts on here for granite identification. Mine is a far cry from all of the exciting and beautiful pieces I’ve seen posted, but with that said, I have exhausted multiple resources online and would greatly appreciate any help. It’s a standard countertop remnant and I’m looking for the name of the granite (if that’s what it is) in order to find a match. Thank you so much for any assistance!

[James Catmur]

We are into crystalized minerals, not rocks. So this may well not be the best place to ask, but you never know

[fuss]

Looks more Like a Gabbro, Monzonite or Anorthosite than Granite.

[Bob Carnein]

I agree with Fuss. Most of the material sold as "granite" for countertops is not really granite. The only way to ID it for sure is to do a quantitative analysis of the mineral composition from a thin section.

[Pete Richards]

As countertop material, the name applied to it will be a commercial name, not one that is related to mineralogy or petrology. Any name we might apply to it would probably be meaningless in looking for matching countertop material. You will have more luck taking it to a good countertop specialist in the building trades.

[Vinoterapia]

The rock of your countertop resembles very much the one I used to have at my former house in Spain. That rock was a Charnockite, commercially named as “Ubatuba green” for the place where it was quarried. Ubatuba, Brazil.

The name of the rock has an interesting history, as it seem that it is based on the tombstone of Job Charnock, an Englishman that was considered the founder of the former Indian city of Calcutta, nowadays known as Kolkata.

The rock has a more or less granitic composition, but includes orthopyroxene in its mineralogical suite. As for its origin, the debate of igneous over metamorphic is still open. Many authors considering it a metamorphic rock, formed under high temperature and pressure in the granulite facies.