Heard a guy at the rock shop say 'granite is boring' and it got me fired up

I was at the local gem and mineral show in Tucson last weekend, just browsing the slabs. This guy next to me, looking at some really nice pink granite, said to his friend, 'It's just feldspar, quartz, and mica. Seen one, you've seen them all. It's boring.' I had to bite my tongue. On one hand, I get it. Granite is everywhere, from kitchen counters to park benches. It's the textbook example of an intrusive igneous rock. But on the other hand, calling it boring feels wrong. The grain size, the color variations from place to place, the specific mix of minerals... that all tells a story about how and where it cooled. My take is that common doesn't mean simple. What's your view? Is granite actually a snooze, or is there more to it than most people see?

2 comments

2 Comments

luna_green2mo ago

But what if the guy had a point? Granite is the plain white t-shirt of rocks. It's useful, it's everywhere, but that doesn't make it exciting. You can talk about grain size all day, but most slabs just look like gray or pink speckles. The story it tells is the same basic one every time: it cooled slowly underground. Compared to something like labradorite that flashes with color, or a geode that hides a surprise inside, granite just sits there. Sometimes common really does mean simple.

barbarahill2mo ago

Look closer at a granite countertop sometime. Those "speckles" are different minerals that each tell their own story about pressure and heat. It's like a whole world in there if you stop calling it boring.