ABSTRACT
A critical examination of lunar granitic and rhyolitic rocks reveals that even on this planet one is confronted by the enigma of 'granites and granites'. The presence of granites and rhyolites among the many picrobasaltic, basaltic and gabbroic and anorthositic rocks of the Moon is somewhat perplexing because there is an apparent lack of intermediate rocks of the type one would expect if the silicic rocks had evolved by normal fractional crystallisation. Historically the development of ideas on the evolution of the continental crust and on the origin of the granitic rocks have been intricately intertwined. In 1907 Sederholm introduced the term migmnatite and focused attention on the important rocks that contain both igneous-looking and metamorphic components. Most granitic rocks are medium to coarse grained with a hypidiomorphic-granular texture. Granitic rocks are extremely abundant, with extensive spatial and temporal distributions in the continental crust of the Earth.
