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This basalt from a former lava flow is fine-grained (aphanitic) and massive (without layers or structure).

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This basalt cobble has gas bubbles (vesicles) and large grains (phenocrysts) of olivine that formed early in the lava's history.

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Pahoehoe is a texture found in highly fluid, gas-charged lava due to the deformation of flow. Pahoehoe is typical in basaltic lava, low in silica.

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Andesite is more siliceous and less fluid than basalt. The large, light phenocrysts are potassium feldspar. Andesite can also be red.

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La Soufrière volcano, on St. Vincent island in the Caribbean, erupts porphyritic andesite lava with phenocrysts largely of plagioclase feldspar.

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Rhyolite is a high-silica rock, the extrusive counterpart of granite. It is typically banded and, unlike this specimen, full of large crystals (phenocrysts). Red volcanic rocks are usually altered from their original black by superheated steam.

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Rhyolite displays flow banding and large grains of quartz in the almost-glassy groundmass. Rhyolite can also be black, gray, or red.

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Obsidian is a volcanic glass, high in silica and so viscous that crystals do not form as it cools.

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Obsidian or rhyolite flows that are rich in water often produce perlite, a lightweight, hydrated lava glass.

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Peperite is a rock formed where magma meets water-saturated sediments at relatively shallow depths, such as in a maar (a broad, shallow volcanic crater). The lava tends to shatter, producing a breccia, and the sediment is vigorously disrupted.

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This bit of basaltic lava was puffed up by escaping gases to create scoria.

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The ultimate form of scoria, in which all the gas bubbles have burst and only a fine mesh of lava threads remains, is called reticulite (or thread-lace scoria).

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Pumice is also a gas-charged, lightweight volcanic rock like scoria, but it is lighter in color and higher in silica. Pumice comes from continental volcanic centers. Crushing this feather-light rock releases a sulfuric smell.

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Fine-grained volcanic ash fell upon the Napa Valley several million years ago, later hardening into this lightweight rock. Such ash is usually high in silica. Tuff forms from erupted ash. Tuff often has chunks of older rock, as well as freshly-erupted material.

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This lapilli tuff includes reddish grains of old scoria, fragments of country rock, stretched grains of fresh gassy lava, and fine ash.

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Tierra blanca tuff underlies the metropolitan region of El Salvador's capital, San Salvador. Tuff is formed by the accumulation of volcanic ash. 

Tuff is a sedimentary rock formed by volcanic activity. It tends to form when erupting lavas are stiff and high in silica, which holds the volcanic gases in bubbles rather than letting them escape. The lava tends to fragment and explode into tiny pieces. After the ash falls, it may be reworked by rainfall and streams. That accounts for the crossbedding near the top of the lower part of the roadcut.

If tuff beds are thick enough, they can consolidate into a fairly strong, lightweight rock. In parts of San Salvador, the tierra blanca is thicker than 50 meters. A lot of old Italian stonework is made of tuff. In other places, the tuff must be carefully compacted before buildings can be constructed on it. Salvadoreans have learned this through centuries of rueful experience with major earthquakes. Residential and suburban buildings that short-change this step remain prone to landslides and washouts, whether from heavy rainfall or from earthquakes, like that which struck the area in 2001.

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Lapilli are volcanic pebbles (2 to 64 mm in size) or "ash hailstones" formed in the air. Sometimes, they accumulate and became lapillistone.

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A bomb is an erupted particle of lava (a pyroclast) that is larger than lapilli (greater than 64 mm) and was not solid when it erupted.

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Pillow lavas may be the world's most common extrusive igneous formation, but they only form on the deep sea floor. 

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Breccia, like conglomerate, consists of pieces of mixed size, but the large pieces are broken.