How granite is quarried
Granite is magma that cooled so slowly underground that its crystals grew big enough to see.
- stations
- 3
- thing downstream
- 1
The short version
Granite is a coarse-grained rock of quartz, feldspar and mica that formed when silica-rich magma cooled slowly deep underground. Quarries cut massive blocks out of exposed rock. The blocks are sawn into slabs, which are polished into countertops, building facing and monuments, or crushed into aggregate.
-
Cut the block free
Quarry crews drill and split large blocks out of the granite mass. Blasting is kept gentle for dimension stone, because heavy blasting shatters the rock and ruins it for slabs.
-
Saw into slabs
Gang saws slice blocks into big slabs. Slabs for monuments can be up to 3 meters wide and over 150 millimeters thick before smaller saws shape them.
-
Polish the face
Slabs for countertops are polished, and sometimes honed or sandblasted instead. Standard countertop slabs in the United States are 19 or 32 millimeters thick.
Worth repeating
- The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, for its coarse crystals.
- The Brihadeeswarar Temple in India, built in 1010, is credited as the world's first temple built entirely of granite.
- Imperial Roman granite was quarried mainly in Egypt, and the quarrying ceased around the third century AD.
Where it goes next
Granite feeds 1 line directly.
Keep walking
Sources
Cite this page: "How granite is quarried." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/granite