Syenite

Looks like granite but has little or no quartz; mostly alkali feldspar.

Syenite specimen — Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify syenite

Coarse pink or gray feldspar crystals.
Little or no glassy quartz.
Some dark hornblende or biotite.

Often confused with

Granite
Granite has plenty of glassy quartz.
Compare side by side
Monzonite
Monzonite has more white plagioclase.
Compare side by side

Where it's found

Magnet Cove, Arkansas
Ontario, Canada
Norway

Uses

Dimension stone; nepheline syenite is used for glass and ceramics.

Rock tumbling

Great for tumbling.

Did you know?

It's named after Syene (Aswan) in Egypt — though the famous Aswan stone is actually granite.

Think you could spot it from a blurry close-up?

Play today's Rocksday