Strongest Rock Type?

[GCountach 39]

NOTE: If you are concerned I will reveal the secrets of stone strength in TFCraft, stop reading now!

I was doing some research on my own, both in game and out of game, and came to the conclusion that the rock types, from strongest to weakest, are:

Igneous Extrusive, Ingneous Intrusive, Metamorphic, and Sedimentary

The difference in strength of the igneous rock has me puzzled. The difference between the two is that extrusive cools on the surface whereas intrusive cools inside the earth. The result is intrusive are "coarse grained" and extrusive are "fine grained", which I would take to mean larger and smaller grained respectively. Wouldn't larger grain mean stronger?

[RogueHydra 32]

Not necessarily, the bonds between the grains could be equal between two rocks that are either fine or coarse. I'm no expert but logically it seems like the grain size wouldn't affect the strength of rock sample. I am just thinking in terms of the whet stones I use on my knives (I use them all equally and they all seem to wear down equally - except for the ceramic polishing stone).

[GCountach 39]

That's true, the bonds are more important than the grain size, but I figured the larger grain size would be the result of a better bonding during creation. It still seems counter-intuitive to me. I'm hardly a geologist, so a lot of assumptions are being made here, but it just seems like intrusive should be better than extrusive. Intrusive, since it's being created inside the crust, should have less gas bubbles in it, cool slower, and do it all under pressure. Those 3 factors should result in a stronger end product than one that is exposed to the air or water and cools quicker at what I would imagine is lower pressures.

I'm trying my google-fu to see what rock type is best, but it seems no geologist has ever taken two rocks and smacked them together to see who would win a rock fight. Well, if they have, I can't find the right set of keywords to find the results.

[Jed1314 420]

NOTE: If you are concerned I will reveal the secrets of stone strength in TFCraft, stop reading now!

I was doing some research on my own, both in game and out of game, and came to the conclusion that the rock types, from strongest to weakest, are:

Igneous Extrusive, Ingneous Intrusive, Metamorphic, and Sedimentary

The difference in strength of the igneous rock has me puzzled. The difference between the two is that extrusive cools on the surface whereas intrusive cools inside the earth. The result is intrusive are "coarse grained" and extrusive are "fine grained", which I would take to mean larger and smaller grained respectively. Wouldn't larger grain mean stronger?

Well .. As far as metal goes, smaller grain sizes are better. That is why we quench things I don't know how that translates to rock, but I imagine it will be the same. It has to do with grain boundaries and their effects on crack and slip propogation

[Ryuugumo 88]

You're right about the order of strength "Igneous Extrusive, Ingneous Intrusive, Metamorphic, and Sedimentary." As far as, why igneous extrusive?, that is because when something rapidly cools down it shrinks, hardens, becomes more dense, and cracks. In smaller objects like metal (which is technically a soft mineral [rock] that sticks to itself) it won't crack (it will if you have a big enough piece though.) When it does this the gas escapes and leaves you with a more solid piece of stone. I cann't explain why intrusive doesn't seem to let the gas out as well. My only guess would be that it's micro-pockets act more as insulation instead of permeable rock. Kinda like custard with small bubbles in it. I forgot what I was getting to with that. Oh yeah, if you want to know the absolute hardest rock to our knowledge it's not a rock but a glass of the igneous extrusive family called obsidian. It's so hard that they can get a 1 molecule wide non-serrated edge on it where all other stones, metals included, end up with a serrated edge. Please don't forget the fact the the harder something becomes the more brittle it becomes. That is why metal is stronger. It's not as hard and as such not as brittle. Smaller grain sizes have more flex in them while larger grain sizes are harder. This translates into larger grains sheering off when they cann't flex and smaller grains flexing instead of sheering. A good metal is one that has a perfect mixture of hardness and flex and I would assume that if you are looking for a strong not hard rock you'd be looking for the same idea. The problem is stone, as we call it, doesn't have much flex. Metal on the other hand is a soft silicon-free rock that can give us the flex we need for tools that last.

[EstebanLB 183]

Or maybe Bioxx has just mistakenly swapped them

[Johnny_Madhouse 28]

Ryuugmo's explanation is correct; larger grain sizes have less flexibility than an equal volume if small grain sizes. Intrusive rocks like granite have very large grains that crumble and shear off of the main mass very easily, while extrusive rocks, particularly low viscosity ones that cooled quickly, have tiny grains that bond together well.

It's not a perfect system. Rocks like chert should be far better than they are for making stone tools, but as has been mentioned time and time again the emphasis is on believability, not exact reality.

[RogueHydra 32]

Very interesting. I wish I had the time to study geology like I did when I was a kid.

[Deathbytac0 46]

Well I would go out and bang scoria (only igneous extrusive rock I have irl) on an igneous intrusive rock (if I have any) and prove you right but I googled it. Unlike you I found something...

Look at these extrusive rocks.

basalt

obsidian

See how compact they are, and I'm sure you know how strong obsidian is.

Now here are intrusive rocks

granite

diorite

Look how chunky they are, still compact, but all those colors don't weld together as well as obsidian.

Now these are also extrusive rocks

scoria

pumice

These are extrusive, vesicular igneous rocks. These are the kind that have all the air bubbles in them.

Now minecraft is measured in meters... Once again looking at obsidian, see its structure. It has a not really flakey but smooth chunk break, in a meter you may get a lot of pieces break off like this, leaving me stumped because diorite would break in very small pieces but much easier. This should be your question can you break a meter cube of igneous extrusive rock or igneous intrusive faster. Now I do want to look at basalt to even this out...you would have a hell of a time breaking that. This may conclude igneous extrusive is stronger, but this may counter it.

peridotite- an igneous intrusive rock

I don't see you breaking this very easy either (not that it's easy)

Look here:http://geology.com/r...ous-rocks.shtml for a few others but that's the competition, really.

...

Dammit, did I just go nerd XD!

[Salvatos 10]

.......

Dammit, did I just go nerd XD!

Just a bit, but good job, I like it. Thanks for your time.

Always interesting to see all the different geological features.

[Deathbytac0 46]

Just a bit, but good job, I like it. Thanks for your time.

Always interesting to see all the different geological features.

Lol. I obviously had nothing better to do last night (except sleeping, which I refused) so the time was well worth it. I have fun with my gigantic posts.

[Bioxx 796]

Extrusive was chosen to be slightly harder than intrusive purely to take something away from Granite. For the longest time, Granite was so OP that for balance reasons I've done many things to give players some reason to use anything but Granite. As it stands the differences are so minute between intrusive and extrusive that I won't be changing them again.