feldspar

/feld"spahr', fel"-/, n.

any of a group of minerals, principally aluminosilicates of potassium, sodium, and calcium, characterized by two cleavages at nearly right angles: one of the most important constituents of igneous rocks.

Also, felspar.

[1750-60; feld- ( < G: field) + SPAR³; r. feldspath < G (Feld field + Spath spar)]

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Any of a group of aluminosilicate (containing aluminum and silicon) minerals that also contains calcium, sodium, or potassium.

Feldspars are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust and are the major component in nearly all igneous rocks found on the Earth, on the Moon, and in some meteorites. They also are common in metamorphic and some sedimentary rocks. Their complex chemical and structural properties make them useful for interpreting the origins of rocks. Natural feldspars can be divided into alkali and plagioclase feldspars.

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▪ mineral

Introduction

      any of a group of aluminosilicate minerals that contain calcium, sodium, or potassium. Feldspars make up more than half the Earth's crust, and professional literature about them constitutes a large percentage of the literature of mineralogy.

      Of the more than 3,000 known mineral species, less than 0.1 percent make up the bulk of the Earth's crust and mantle. These and an additional score of minerals serve as the basis for naming most of the rocks exposed on the Earth's surface.

       Common rock-forming mineralsMost of the less common rocks can be named by similarly identifying the additional half dozen minerals whose names are given in regular type in the table (Common rock-forming minerals). Essentially all rocks can be named as professional geologists name them if, in addition, the presence of the minerals whose names are in italics is known.

      Each of the common rock-forming minerals can be identified on the basis of its chemical composition and its crystal structure (i.e., the arrangement of its constituent atoms and ions). The nonopaque minerals can also be identified by their optical properties. Fairly expensive equipment and sophisticated procedures, however, are required for such determinations. Therefore, it is fortunate that macroscopic examination, along with one or more tests, are sufficient to identify these minerals as they occur in most rocks. The following descriptions include basic chemical and structural data and the properties used in macroscopically based identifications. Optical data, which are not included in these descriptions, are available in mineralogy books.

      Two important rock-forming materials that are not minerals are major components of a few rocks. These are glass and macerals. Glass forms when magma (molten rock material) is quenched—i.e., cooled so rapidly that the constituent atoms do not have time to arrange themselves into the regular arrays characteristic of minerals. Natural glass is the major constituent of a few volcanic rocks—e.g., obsidian. Macerals (maceral) are macerated bits of organic matter, primarily plant materials; one or more of the macerals are the chief original constituents of all the diverse coals and several other organic-rich rocks such as oil shales.

      In the classification of igneous rocks (igneous rock) of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the feldspars are treated as two groups: the alkali feldspars (alkali feldspar) and the plagioclase feldspars. The alkali feldspars include orthoclase, microcline, sanidine, anorthoclase, and the two-phase intermixtures called perthite. The plagioclase feldspars include members of the albite- anorthite solid-solution series. Strictly speaking, however, albite is an alkali feldspar as well as a plagioclase feldspar.

Chemical composition

      All the rock-forming feldspars are aluminosilicate minerals (silicate mineral) with the general formula AT₄O₈ in which A = potassium, sodium, or calcium (Ca); and T = silicon (Si) and aluminum (Al), with a Si:Al ratio ranging from 3:1 to 1:1. Microcline and orthoclase are potassium feldspars (KAlSi₃O₈), usually designated Or in discussions involving their end-member composition. Albite (NaAlSi₃O₈—usually designated Ab) and anorthite (CaAl₂Si₂O₈—An) are end-members of the plagioclase series. Sanidine, anorthoclase, and the perthites are alkali feldspars whose chemical compositions lie between Or and Ab.

      As is apparent from the preceding statements, solid solution plays an important role in the rock-making feldspars. (Members of solid-solution series are single crystalline phases whose chemical compositions are intermediate to those of two or more end-members.) The alkali (Or-Ab) series exhibits complete solid solution at high temperatures but only incomplete solid solution at low temperatures; substitution of potassium for sodium is involved. The plagioclase (Ab-An) series exhibits essentially complete solid solution at both high and low temperatures; coupled substitution of sodium and silicon by calcium and aluminum occurs. The An-Or system has only limited solid-solution tendencies.

      The most obvious differences between the high- and low-temperature diagrams are along the alkali-feldspar (Or-Ab) join (the boundary line between the phases). As indicated, sanidine and anorthoclase are high-temperature alkali feldspars, and perthite is their low-temperature analogue. Sanidine is a single-phase alkali feldspar; although frequently described chemically by the formula (K, Na)AlSi₃O₈, most analyzed specimens of sanidine range between Or₅₀ and Or₈₀. (This designation is used to specify the fractions of the constituents. For example, Or₈₀ indicates that the mineral is composed of 80 percent KAlSi₃O₈ and 20 [i.e., 100 - 80] percent NaAlSi₃O₈.) Anorthoclase is a variously used name that is most often applied to apparently homogeneous alkali feldspar masses, at least some of which consist of submicroscopic lamellae (layers) of albite and orthoclase; their bulk compositions typically range between Or₂₅ and Or₆₀. Perthite consists of intimate intermixtures of a potassium feldspar—either microcline or orthoclase—and a sodium-rich plagioclase that occurs as microscopic to macroscopic masses within the potassium feldspar host.

      Many perthites are formed when high-temperature potassium-sodium feldspars of appropriate compositions are cooled in such a manner that the original solid-solution phase exsolves (exsolution) (i.e., unmixes, so that a homogeneous mineral separates into two or more different minerals) to form intermixtures—sometimes termed intergrowths—of two phases.

      Some perthites, however, appear to have been formed as a result of partial replacement of original potassium feldspars by sodium-bearing fluids. In any case, perthite is the name properly applied to intimate mixtures in which the potassium feldspar component predominates over the plagioclase constituent, whereas antiperthite is the name given to intimate mixtures in which the plagioclase constituent is predominant. Perthites are common, whereas antiperthites are relatively rare.

       plagioclase seriesThe plagioclase series is essentially continuous at both high and low temperatures. The names of members of the series designate relative proportions of the end-members (see table (plagioclase series)). Although plagioclase grains in some rocks are essentially homogeneous, those in many rocks are zoned—i.e., different parts of individual grains have different Ab and An contents. One explanation for zoning in plagioclases formed from magmas can be implied from information known about the Ab-An system. Upon cooling, the first crystals (crystal) that form from a melt with the composition X (= An₅₀) will have the composition Y (approximately An₈₃). With further cooling, in some cases the first and subsequently formed crystals will react continuously with the remaining liquid, thereby maintaining equilibrium; when the liquid becomes totally crystallized, the system will consist of homogeneous plagioclase crystals. In cases in which such equilibrium is not maintained during cooling, the early and subsequently formed feldspars have different An contents. For example, zoned crystals may form with differing An contents arranged one on top of another so that their margins are relatively sodium-rich as compared to their earlier-formed, more calcium-rich cores. The resulting zoning may be gradational or well-defined or may assume some combination of these characteristics.

      Many elements other than those required for the Or, Ab, and An end-member compositions have been recorded in analyses of feldspars. Those that have been recorded to occur as substitutions within the feldspar structures include lithium (Li), rubidium (Rb), cesium (Cs), magnesium (Mg), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), yttrium (Y), ferrous iron (Fe²⁺), thallium (Tl), lead (Pb), lanthanum (La) and other rare earth elements, and ammonium (NH₄) in the A position; and titanium (Ti), ferric (Fe³⁺) and ferrous (Fe²⁺) iron, boron (B), gallium (Ga), germanium (Ge), and phosphorus (P) in the T position. Of these, substitution of some barium for potassium and some titanium or ferric iron or both for aluminum are especially common in alkali feldspars. Several other elements also have been recorded as traces in feldspar analyses; it seems very likely, however, that some of these elements may reside in impurities—i.e., within unrecognized microscopic or submicroscopic inclusions of other minerals.

Crystal structure

      Sanidine and orthoclase are monoclinic (monoclinic system) or nearly so; the plagioclase feldspars are triclinic (triclinic system). All, however, have the same fundamental structure: it consists of a continuous, negatively charged, three-dimensional framework that is made up of corner-sharing SiO₄ and AlO₄ tetrahedrons (each tetrahedron consists of a central silicon or aluminum atom bonded to four oxygen atoms) and positively charged cations (e.g., the potassium, sodium, and/or calcium) that occupy relatively large interstices within the framework. Although the framework is sufficiently elastic to adjust itself to the different sizes of the A cations, the relatively large potassium cations give structures that have a monoclinic or only slightly off-monoclinic symmetry, whereas the smaller sodium and calcium cations lead to distorted structures that have triclinic symmetry.

 One aspect of the feldspar—especially the potassium feldspar—structures that is of particular interest is termed ordering (see Figure 1—>). This phenomenon is indicative of the conditions under which the feldspar was formed and its subsequent thermal history. Ordering in feldspars is based on the distributional pattern of silicon and aluminum within the different tetrahedrons. It can be characterized as follows: silicon and aluminum have a random distribution within the tetrahedrons of sanidine, an arrangement termed disordered; they have a regular distribution within the constituent tetrahedrons of microcline, an arrangement termed ordered; and they are distributed within the tetrahedrons of orthoclase in a manner usually characterized as only partly ordered. The disordered structure of sanidine reflects formation at high temperatures followed by rapid cooling; the high degree of ordering of microcline reflects either growth at low temperatures or very slow cooling from higher temperatures; the partial ordering of orthoclase indicates either formation at intermediate temperatures or formation at high temperatures followed by fairly slow cooling. With regard to this phenomenon, it is also noteworthy that all plagioclase feldspars are more nearly ordered than their associated potassium feldspars regardless of the temperatures that prevailed when they were formed.

      Crystals of all the common rock-forming feldspars tend to look alike; megascopic examination of crystal form typically cannot be used to distinguish between feldspars. The angle between the face that intersects the b axis and is parallel to a and c and the face that intersects the c axis and is parallel to a and b is 90° for the monoclinic feldspars and ranges from about 86° to roughly 89°30′ for the triclinic feldspars; the deviations from 90° are not readily discernible with the naked eye. In any case, feldspar crystals are relatively rare; almost all occur in miarolitic cavities, in pegmatite masses, or as phenocrysts within porphyries. (A porphyry is an igneous rock containing conspicuous crystals, called phenocrysts, surrounded by a matrix of finer-grained minerals or glass or both.) In most rocks, both alkali and plagioclase feldspars occur as irregularly shaped grains with only a few or no crystal faces. This general absence of crystal faces reflects the fact that crystallization of these feldspars was interfered with by previously formed minerals within the same mass.

 Both crystals and irregularly shaped grains of feldspars are commonly twinned (twinning). Some individual grains are twinned in two or more ways. Two common kinds of twinning—those designated Carlsbad twinning and albite twinning—are shown in the figure—>. Carlsbad twinning occurs in both monoclinic and triclinic feldspars; albite twinning occurs only in triclinic feldspars. Albite twinning, which is typically polysynthetic (i.e., multiple or repeated), can be observed as a set of parallel lines on certain crystal or cleavage surfaces of many plagioclase feldspars.

Physical properties

      It is important to be able to distinguish feldspar group minerals from other rock-forming minerals and from one another because their presence (versus absence), along with their relative quantities, serves as the basis for classifying and naming many rocks, especially those of igneous origin. In the laboratory, it is relatively easy to identify the feldspars by determining their chemical compositions, their structures, or their optical properties. In some cases, staining techniques are employed. Fortunately, most feldspar grains can also be identified rather easily on the basis of macroscopic examination in the field, using properties such as those described in the remainder of this article.

Common properties of the group

      As might be suspected on the basis of their similar chemical compositions and structures, all of the rock-forming feldspars have several similar properties. As indicated by the fact that they lack inherent colour, feldspars can be colourless, white, or nearly any colour if impure. In general, however, orthoclase and microcline have a reddish tinge that ranges from a pale, fleshlike pink to brick-red, whereas typical rock-forming plagioclases are white to dark gray. As a group, feldspars range from transparent to nearly opaque, have nonmetallic lustres—typically vitreous to subvitreous on fractures and pearly or porcelaneous on cleavage surfaces, exhibit two cleavages (cleavage)—one perfect, the other good—at or near 90° to each other, and have a Mohs hardness of approximately 6.

      The presence of two cleavages at or near 90° distinguishes the feldspars from all other common rock-forming minerals except halite and the pyroxenes. The hardness (2¹/₂) and the salty taste of halite make that distinction clear. The gray to black streak of the common rock-forming pyroxenes, which contrasts markedly with the white or slightly tinted hues of the streaks of the feldspars—including those that are dark-coloured—affords a simple way to distinguish between these minerals, even those that are similar in appearance. (Streak is the colour of a mineral's powder, which can be produced readily by pounding or scratching the mineral with a geologic pick or hammer.)

Identification of specific feldspars

      Alkali feldspars can often be distinguished from plagioclase feldspars because most grains of the latter exhibit albite twinning (see above Crystal structure (feldspar)), which is manifested by parallel lines on certain cleavage surfaces, whereas grains of alkali feldspars do not. This criterion is not, however, absolute; some plagioclase feldspars are not polysynthetically twinned. Furthermore, upon only cursory examination some perthitic textures may be mistaken for polysynthetic twinning. Fortunately, this resemblance is seldom confusing once one has thoroughly examined several examples of both features. The two features differ rather markedly: the traces of the polysynthetic twinning are straight, whereas the perthitic textures that are most likely to be mistaken for polysynthetic twinning have an interdigitated appearance.

      Another property that is sometimes used to distinguish between alkali and plagioclase feldspars is their different specific gravity values. The ideal value for the potassium-rich alkali feldspars is 2.56, which is less than the lowest value for the plagioclases (namely, 2.62 for albite).

      Sanidine is usually distinguished rather easily from the other alkali feldspars because it typically appears glassy—i.e., it tends to be colourless, and much of it is transparent. Microcline and orthoclase, by contrast, are characteristically white, light gray, or flesh- to salmon-coloured and subtranslucent. Except for its green variety, usually called amazonstone or amazonite, microcline can seldom be distinguished from orthoclase by macroscopic means. In the past, much microcline was misidentified as orthoclase because of the incorrect assumption that all microcline is green. Today, prudent geologists identify potassium feldspars other than sanidine simply as alkali, or in some cases potassium, feldspars when describing rocks on the basis of macroscopic examination. That is to say, they do not make a distinction between microcline and orthoclase until they have proved their identity by determining, for example, their optical properties. Upon macroscopic examination, anorthoclase is also generally identified merely as an alkali feldspar except by those who are acquainted with the rocks known to contain anorthoclase.

      The rock-forming plagioclases can seldom be identified as to species by macroscopic means. Nevertheless, some rules of thumb can be employed: White or off-white plagioclase feldspars that exhibit a bluish iridescence (the so-called peristerites (peristerite)) have overall albite compositions, even though they are submicroscopic intergrowths of 70 percent An₂ and 30 percent An₂₅; and dark-coloured plagioclases that exhibit iridescence of such hues as blue, green, yellow, or orange are labradorites (labradorite). In addition, the identities of associated minerals tend to indicate the approximate An-Ab contents of the plagioclase feldspars—for example, biotite most commonly accompanies albite or oligoclase; hornblende commonly occurs with andesine; and the pyroxenes, augite and/or hypersthene, typically accompany labradorite or bytownite. Additional characteristics for two of the feldspars are as follows: microcline commonly exhibits “grid twinning.” This combination of two kinds of twinning, although best seen by means of a microscope equipped to use doubly polarized light, is sometimes discernible macroscopically. (Polarized refers to light that vibrates in a single plane.) plagioclase feldspars that constitute lamellar masses in complex pegmatites are albite; this variety is often referred to by the name cleavelandite.

Origin and occurrence

       Some typical occurrences of the rock-forming feldsparsFeldspars occur in all classes of rocks. They are widely distributed in igneous rocks, which indicates that they have formed by crystallization from magma. Physical weathering of feldspar-bearing rocks may result in sediments and sedimentary rocks (sedimentary rock) that contain feldspars; however, this is a rare occurrence because in most environments the feldspars tend to be altered to other substances, such as clay minerals. They also may be found in many metamorphic rocks (metamorphic rock) formed from precursor rocks that contained feldspars and/or the chemical elements required for their formation. In addition, feldspars occur in veins and pegmatites, in which they were apparently deposited by fluids, and within sediments and soils, in which they were probably deposited by groundwater solutions. Some of the typical occurrences for the individual species are given in the table (Some typical occurrences of the rock-forming feldspars).

Uses

      Feldspars are used widely in the glass and ceramics industries. Alkali feldspars are more commonly used commercially than plagioclase feldspars. albite, or soda spar as it is known commercially, is used in ceramics. The feldspar-rich rocks larvikite and a few anorthosites are employed as both interior and exterior facing slabs.

      In addition, several feldspars are used as gemstones (gemstone). For example, varieties that show opalescence are sold as moonstone. Spectrolite is a trade name for labradorite with strong colour flashes. sunstone (oligoclase or orthoclase) is typically yellow to orange to brown with a golden sheen; this effect appears to be due to reflections from inclusions of red hematite. Amazonite (amazonstone), a green variety of microcline, is used as an ornamental material.

       sanidine occurs as phenocrysts (large noticeable crystals) in extrusive felsic igneous rocks such as rhyolite and trachyte. It indicates that the rocks cooled quickly after their eruption. Sanidine is also diagnostic of high-temperature contact metamorphism as an indicator of sanidinite hornfels or facies.

       orthoclase is a primary constituent of intrusive felsic igneous rocks such as granite, granodiorite, and syenites. It may also occur in some metamorphic pelitic schists and gneisses. microcline, also found in granitic rocks and pegmatites, is present in sedimentary rocks such as sandstones and conglomerates. It can also occur in metamorphic rocks.

      Albite is found commonly in granites, syenites, rhyolites, and trachytes. Albite is common in pegmatites and may replace earlier formed microcline as cleavelandite. It is also common in low-grade metamorphic rocks ranging from zeolite to greenschist facies.

       oligoclase is characteristic of granodiorites and monzonites. It may also have a sparkle owing to inclusions of hematite, in which case it is called sunstone. Oligoclase is found in metamorphic rocks formed under moderate temperature conditions such as amphibolite facies.

      Certain feldspars are somewhat less common. anorthite is found only in gabbros, though it is common in certain high-grade metamorphic rocks such as granulite facies. Many metamorphosed limestones also contain anorthite. Bytownite is also only found in gabbros, whereas labradorite is found in gabbros, basalts, and anorthosites. Labradorite is often iridescent. This quality makes it desirable for interior and exterior building slabs. In contrast, andesine is rare except in andesites and diorites.

R.V. Dietrich

Additional Reading

William L. Brown (ed.), Feldspars and Feldspathoids: Structures, Properties, and Occurrences (1984); Joseph V. Smith and William L. Brown, Feldspar Minerals, 2nd rev. and extended ed. (1988), the most comprehensive, well-illustrated treatment.R.V. Dietrich

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