The Feldspars

Download or read book Feldspars and their Reactions written by Ian Parsons and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feldspar minerals make up 60% of the crust of the Earth. They are stable in the upper mantle, and are so abundant in the crust that they form the basis of the classification of igneous rocks. At the surface, feldspars weather to form clay minerals which are the most important mineral constituent of soils. The articles in this book review the chemical reactions of feldspars over the whole sweep of pressure and temperature regimes in the outer Earth, and describe the fundamental aspects of crystal structure which underlie their properties. The book covers intracrystalline reactions, such as order-disorder transformations and exsolution, and transfer of stable and radiogenic isotopes, which can be interpreted to provide insights into the thermal history of rocks. It is suitable for final year undergraduates or research workers.