Although granite is a specific material, the name is used for many of the stones used today in the manufacture of natural stone products.

Granite is the product of enormous heat and pressure that is developed at the margins of the continental plates .Huge masses of magma are formed and most of these rise to the surface to become volcanic lava. Others rise through the cooler rock of the earth’s mantel and are known as plutons. As they cool, the minerals present solidify at different temperatures, and  sink to the bottom of the mass  to form a distinct type of rock. Further cooling, crystallization, and settling produces rocks of widely differing compositions and appearance.

These rocks are in turn subject to further heat and pressure bringing about further change. Some of these an granitic gneiss and granofels  that have the mineral composition of granite but include other minerals as well. These formations exhibit the banding and flowering associated with the types of materials that are so popular and are used in the manufacture of counter tops.

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