Granite

Granite. A medium- or coarse-grained igneous rock that is rich in quartz, feldspar, and mica. The most common plutonic rock of the earth's crust, granite is valued as a building stone; its better varieties are used for ornamentation. In Ukraine granite and gneiss are the basic rocks of the Ukrainian Crystalline Shield; there, in the river valleys, outcrops of granite form a unique landscape. Many varieties of granite, differing in composition, origin, physical properties, color, and economic value, are found in Ukraine. Before the Second World War Ukraine accounted for 25 percent of the granite produced in the USSR. Granite is quarried near Klesiv in Rivne oblast (gray and pink granites); at Novohrad-Volynskyi, Korostyshiv, and Korosten in Zhytomyr oblast and Sudylkiv in Khmelnytskyi oblast (red granite); in the Vinnytsia-Hnivan region (dark-gray granite); along the Ros River (Pohrebyshche, Horodyshche (Cherkasy region), Bila Tserkva, and Bohuslav); in the Uman-Talne region of Cherkasy oblast; and near Kremenchuk and in the Yanchivske-Natalivka deposit in Zaporizhia oblast. Deposits in the southern Boh River region and the Azov Upland are little exploited because of their distance from transportation facilities.