How to Use igneous in a Sentence
igneous
adjective-
If the rocks are igneous, they were formed by volcanoes.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 21 July 2021
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Down there, salt water begins to mix and move through igneous rocks like olivine.
—David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 10 June 2019
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Percy may be directed back to this spot to try and grab some igneous rocks in the future, Farley says.
—Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 12 Aug. 2021
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Certain types of igneous rock, such as the crystalline mineral spodumene and jadarite, are rich in the metal.
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 11 Dec. 2021
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These zones are hot spots for earthquakes and fiery igneous volcanoes.
—Sarah Gibbens, National Geographic, 15 Mar. 2017
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Italy's Mount Etna provides a vivid image of one of the birthplaces of igneous rock during a night eruption.
—National Geographic, 6 Jan. 2016
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The castle's outer walls, built from stern igneous rock, and the black-walled keep stand in stark contrast to the 800 cherry blossom trees that paint its gardens pink each spring.
—CNN, 19 Jan. 2022
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The light-colored highlands are composed of anorthosite, an igneous rock believed to be the remains of the primordial crust of the Moon, and are dated to 4.5 to 3.9 billion years.
—David Bressan, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2021
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Members of species that used to share turf and swap genes got separated by Nature’s igneous paving crews.
—Elyse Butler, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
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Members of species that used to share turf and swap genes got separated by Nature’s igneous paving crews.
—Elyse Butler, Smithsonian, 29 Apr. 2017
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The massive cascade tumbles over black-brown basalt rock, an igneous rock born of billion-year-old lava flows.
—Chelsey Lewis, USA TODAY, 16 Mar. 2018
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Etna also shows off the etymology of igneous, from the Latin word for fire.
—National Geographic, 6 Jan. 2016
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The repository is in 2 billion-year-old igneous Finnish bedrock.
—James Conca, Forbes, 31 May 2021
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These volcanic events, called large igneous provinces, get the blame for a handful of other mass extinctions.
—Eric Betz, Discover Magazine, 9 Feb. 2018
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The Early Jurassic igneous rocks in the region, laid down in massive lava flows, have not been as productive.
—Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 29 Jan. 2020
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But igneous rock like basalt provides a timeline: Scientists can date when the magma turned into hard rock.
—Matt Simon, Wired, 12 Aug. 2021
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Devils Tower is a massive, 867-foot column of igneous rock towering above the Wyoming plains.
—Outside Online, 2 Mar. 2022
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And do the samples include igneous rocks to calibrate dating?
—Marissa Grunes, Discover Magazine, 6 Apr. 2023
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The rover investigated the crater floor and found evidence of igneous, or volcanic, rock.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 15 Sep. 2022
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The cores are largely made of peridotite, an igneous rock made of the minerals pyroxene and olivine, that is the most common type of rock in the upper mantle, per the Washington Post.
—Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 June 2023
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Collected in September 2021, the rover’s first sample is thought to be igneous rock from an ancient lava flow.
—Jonathan O'Callaghan, Scientific American, 5 Apr. 2023
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In Kansas and Oklahoma, the faults are in deep igneous and metamorphic rocks just beneath the sandstone layer used by the injection wells.
—Scott K. Johnson, Ars Technica, 26 Feb. 2018
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It is thought to be a fragment of an igneous crust of a primitive protoplanet from the early solar system.
—Eva Botkin-Kowacki, Popular Science, 22 Jan. 2023
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The hope, though, is that studying Earth’s own large igneous provinces will provide some revelations.
—Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 27 Nov. 2022
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The huge quantities of igneous and metamorphic rocks in the Appalachian Mountains mean that the power grids sitting atop them will suffer greatly the next time the sun gets its rage on.
—National Geographic, 18 Mar. 2019
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There, volcanic eruptions long ago covered the land in molten rock, building a layer of igneous rock up to 1,000 feet deep, which could have easily obscured the impact crater.
—Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Jan. 2020
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Under that tree was an igneous rock layer with protruding veins of a dark gray metallic-looking substance.
—Jonathan Schifman, Popular Mechanics, 16 Aug. 2016
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During its first scientific campaign, the rover explored the crater’s floor, finding igneous rock.
—Julia Musto, Fox News, 16 Sep. 2022
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Her work and dedication helped establish the igneous petrology (the study of magma) and geothermal branch of the USGS.
—Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 27 Mar. 2023
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Most of the major extinctions that have been connected to eruptions (and there aren't any that have been definitively) are associated with the real big guns of the volcanic realm - the large igneous provinces (LIP).
—Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 20 May 2013
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'igneous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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