Rock forming minerals, volume 4A, framework silicates : feldspars

Includes bibliographies and indexes.

This major revision takes place 38 years after the publication of the first edition. This volume in the second edition of the series Rock-forming Minerals is devoted entirely to the feldspar minerals. The text has been completely re-written and very much expanded,incorporating the advances in knowledge and understanding arising from the new and improved techniques for the study of minerals that have developed over the decades between editions. The authors have maintained the general approach used in the other volumes, summarising important research results and presenting them in an organised fashion.
Each chapter is headed by a brief tabulation of mineral data and sketches showing optical orientation, and contains full references to the literature. Diagrams of crystal structures are presented and followed by discussion of the structural features, making use of data from spectroscopic as well as diffraction experiments. The chemical sections include many analyses from which structural formulae have been calculated, illustrating the range of chemical and paragenetic variation exhibited by each mineral: also the results of P-T experiments and thermochemical and computer modelling techniques. Compared with the first edition, greater emphasis is given to diffusion, chemical alteration and surface studies, and the use of isotope ratios to unravel thermal histories. The sections on optical and physical properties include much information gained by electron microscopy, particularly about fine-scale twinning, exsolution, domain and deformation textures. The principal modes of occurence are described in the paragenesis sections emphasizing correlations with chemistry and structure.