Polished Granite

Granite is a common type of igneous rock with a granular, crystalline texture. The word granite comes from the Latin, granum, meaning grain, which beautifully describes the coarse grain structure of this rock. Granite is made up of a mixture of quartz – a hard mineral made from silica – and feldspar – a mineral of mixed alumosilicates. It can commonly be found widely distributed throughout the world. Granite formed from the crystallisation of molten magma, and the slower it was cooled, the larger its constituent grains. Polished granite like this appears to sparkle as large grains catch and reflect light.

Like most natural stone, granite is a natural source of radiation, on account of the presence of trace radioactive potassium-40, uranium and thorium. Granite is strong in compression, hard and tough, which has seen it used in construction throughout human history, for example in Ancient Egyptian pyramids, South Indian temples and Roman architecture.

As a relatively hard stone, granite takes skill to carve by hand, and was an unpopular material for intricate carving until the invention of steam-powered cutting tools in the 19th century. Today, it is a common material for gravestones and memorials, as well as the material of choice for curling stones, kitchen surfaces and for the rock faces scaled by rock climbers, on account of granite’s ability to form steep formations, its soundness, crack systems and ease of grip.