silica mineral

silica mineral
Any of the forms of silicon dioxide (SiO2), including quartz, tridymite, cristobalite, coesite, stishovite, melanophlogite, lechatelierite, and chalcedony.

Various kinds of silica minerals have been produced synthetically.

* * *

Introduction

      any of the forms of silicon dioxide (SiO2), including quartz, tridymite, cristobalite, coesite, stishovite, lechatelierite, and chalcedony. Various kinds of silica minerals have been produced synthetically; one is keatite.

General considerations
       silica minerals make up approximately 12 percent of the Earth's crust and are second only to the feldspars in mineral abundance. Free silica occurs in many crystalline forms with a composition very close to that of silicon dioxide, 46.75 percent by weight being silicon and 53.25 percent oxygen. Quartz is by far the most commonly occurring form. Tridymite, cristobalite, and the hydrous silica mineral opal are uncommon, and vitreous (glassy) silica, coesite, and stishovite have been reported from only a few localities. Several other forms have been produced in the laboratory but have not been found in nature.

Physical and chemical properties
      The crystallographic (crystal) structures of the silica minerals, except stishovite, are three-dimensional arrays of linked tetrahedrons, each consisting of a silicon atom coordinated by four oxygen atoms. The tetrahedrons are usually quite regular, and the silicon-oxygen bond distances are 1.61 ± 0.02 Å. Principal differences are related to the geometry of the tetrahedral linkages, which may cause small distortions within the silica tetrahedrons. High pressure forces silicon atoms to coordinate with six oxygen atoms, producing nearly regular octahedrons in the stishovite structure.

      The silica minerals when pure are colourless and transparent and have a vitreous lustre. They are nonconductors of electricity and are diamagnetic. All are hard and strong and fail by brittle fracture under an imposed stress.

       Some physical properties of silica minerals Some physical properties of silica mineralsSome important physical properties of the silica minerals are compared in the Table (Some physical properties of silica minerals). All except low tridymite and coesite (among the crystalline varieties) have relatively high symmetry. There is a linear relationship between the specific gravity values listed in the Table (Some physical properties of silica minerals) and the arithmetic mean of the indices of refraction (refractive index) (measures of the velocity of light that is transmitted in different crystallographic directions) for silica minerals composed of linked tetrahedrons. This relationship does not extend to stishovite because it is not made up of silica tetrahedrons. Melanophlogite is notable because it plots below vitreous silica on the graph. The specific gravities of silica minerals are less than those of most of the dark-coloured silicate minerals associated with them in nature; in general, the lighter-coloured rocks have lower specific gravity for this reason. Silica minerals are insoluble to sparingly soluble in strong acids except hydrofluoric acid, in which there is a correlation between specific gravity and solubility.

Individual silica minerals

      Quartz occurs in many varieties in almost all types of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. It has also been found in meteorites and in some lunar rocks.

      Quartz crystals lack a centre of symmetry or planes of symmetry and have one crystallographic axis (c) perpendicular to three polar axes (a) that are 120° apart. One end of a polar axis is different from its other end; when mechanical stress is applied on such an axis, opposite electrical charges develop on each end. This leads to important applications in electronics as a frequency control and in pressure gauges and other devices. The lack of symmetry planes parallel to the vertical axis allows quartz crystals to occur as two types: left-handed or right-handed (enantiomorphism (enantiomorph)). Left-handed quartz is less than 1 percent more abundant than right-handed quartz. The structural tetrahedrons spiral upward through the crystal in the sense of the handedness parallel to the c axis. Similarly, if polarized light is transmitted by a quartz crystal along the c-axis direction, the plane is rotated in the direction of the handedness by tens of degrees per millimetre, the amount depending on the wavelength of the light. This property is used in optical instruments such as monochromators (monochromator).

      The requirements for high-purity crystals for electronic frequency applications have led to the development of industrial synthesis methods based on the differences in silica solubility with temperature. Nutrient crystals are placed in the hot portion of a solution-filled autoclave, and an oriented seed crystal free from twinning is placed in the cooler portion. Crystals weighing thousands of grams can be grown in a few weeks.

      Quartz shows less range in chemical composition than do most other minerals, but it commonly contains tens to hundreds of parts per million of aluminum atoms substituting for silicon atoms, with charge balance maintained by the incorporation of small atoms, such as hydrogen, lithium, or sodium. Titanium, magnesium, or iron atoms substituting for silicon atoms also have been reported, but anionic substitution (i.e., substitution for the negative ion, oxygen) is limited because the linkage of the tetrahedrons is disrupted.

 Coloured varieties of quartz are numerous and have many causes. Most colours result from mechanically incorporated admixtures within fine-crystallized or granular quartz, but some coarse-crystallized varieties, such as amethyst (violet), citrine (yellow), milky quartz, smoky quartz or morion (black), or rose quartz, may be coloured by ions other than silicon and oxygen that occur within the crystal structure (see photograph—>). Small fractions of 1 percent by weight of iron, aluminum, manganese, titanium, hydrogen, and small alkali atoms, such as lithium and sodium, have been shown to be the cause of different colours. Heat treatment or various irradiation treatments under oxidizing or reducing atmospheres are used to change one coloured variety to another. Citrine is commonly produced by heat-treating amethyst at 250°–400° C (482°–752° F), for example.

      Quartz may contain inclusions of other minerals, such as rutile (rutilated quartz), tourmaline, asbestiform amphiboles, or platy minerals, such as mica, iron oxides, or chlorite (aventurine).

      Chalcedony is a white, buff, or light tan, finely crystallized or fibrous quartz that forms rounded crusts, rinds, or stalactites (mineral deposits suspended from the roofs of caverns) in volcanic and sedimentary rocks as a precipitate from moving solutions. If chalcedony is conspicuously colour-banded, it may be called agate; onyx is agate with alternate bands of white and black or dark brown. Some concentrically banded “eye” agate nodules contain cores of coarsely crystalline quartz, and other agates are mottled or variegated in colour. Arborescent or dendritic (branching) dark-coloured patterns set in a lighter field are called moss agate or Mocha stone. Translucent red chalcedony is called carnelian, and translucent brown shades are referred to as sard (sard and sardonyx); both are pigmented by admixed iron oxides.

       chrysoprase, plasma, and prase are names for green varieties of chalcedony coloured by admixed green minerals, such as chlorite, fibrous amphiboles, or hydrous nickel silicates. bloodstone and heliotrope are green chalcedony with red spots.

      Jasper is opaque red, brown, or yellow quartz that is pigmented by admixed iron oxides. Chert and flint are finely crystallized varieties of gray to black quartz that occur as nodules or bands in sedimentary rocks.

High quartz (β-quartz)
      High quartz, or β-quartz, is the more symmetrical form quartz takes at sufficiently high temperatures (about 573° C at one atmosphere of pressure), but the relationship is pressure-sensitive. High quartz may be either left- or right-handed, and its c axis is one of sixfold symmetry rather than threefold; thus, many twin laws of ordinary quartz cannot occur. High quartz twins typically involve inclined sets of axes. High quartz can form directly from silicate magma or from high-temperature gases or solutions. It invariably undergoes the transition to ordinary quartz (low quartz) on cooling, and all ordinary quartz, when heated above the transition temperature, is transformed into high quartz. The transformation involves displacement of the linkage between the tetrahedrons; no bonds are broken.

      Tridymite may occur as a primary magmatic phase (i.e., as a direct result of crystallization from a silicate melt) in siliceous rocks but is most abundant in voids in volcanic rocks where it probably was deposited metastably from hydrous gases. Tridymite also forms in contact-metamorphosed rocks. It has been found in meteorites and is common in lunar basalts. It occurs in quantity in firebricks and other siliceous refractories. Natural tridymite has no specific commercial use.

      Cristobalite is probably more abundant in nature than tridymite, although it seldom forms as distinctive crystals. The devitrification (transformation from the glassy to the crystalline state) of siliceous volcanic glasses yields abundant tiny crystallites of cristobalite, and the mineral is also deposited metastably from hot hydrous gases in cavities and cracks of many volcanic rocks. It has been found in lunar basalts and in meteorites and is common in silica refractories exposed to very high temperatures.

      Opal is poorly crystalline or amorphous hydrous silica that is compact and vitreous and most commonly translucent white to colourless. Precious opal reflects light with a play of brilliant colours across the visible spectrum, red being the most valued. Opal forms by precipitation from silica-bearing solutions near the Earth's surface. Electron microscopy has shown that many opals are composed of spheres of tens to a few thousand angstroms in size that are arranged in either hexagonal or cubic close packing. The spheres are composed of hydrous silica that may be either almost cristobalite-like, tridymite-like, mixtures of both, or random and nondiffracting. The specific gravity and refractive index are lower than those of pure silica minerals. The play of colours in precious opal arises from the diffraction of light from submicroscopic layers of regularly oriented silica spheres. When heated, opal may lose as much as 20 percent of its weight of water, fracture, and then crystallize to one of the silica minerals described above.

      Opal usually contains 4 to 9 percent water, but lower and much higher values have been observed. The contents of alumina, ferric oxide, and alkalis are variable but may amount to several percent in light-coloured opals and more if pigmenting minerals are also present. Precious opal has been synthesized. Opaline silica is a friable hydrous silica found near hot springs and geysers.

Vitreous silica
      Vitreous silica, lechatelierite, is supercooled liquid silica. It has been observed in nature as the result of fusion of quartz by lightning strikes (fulgurites) or by shock associated with large meteorite impacts and may approach artificial, very pure silica glass in composition and physical properties.

Melanophlogite
      Melanophlogite is a tetragonal or cubic silica mineral with a gas-hydrate structure containing many large voids. In nature these are filled with 6 to 12 percent by weight of compounds of hydrogen, carbon, and sulfur, which may be necessary for mineral growth. If these compounds are destroyed by heating, they do not cause the crystal to collapse, but the free carbon formed does darken it. Melanophlogite occurs with bitumen and forms at temperatures below 112° C. It has been found on native sulfur crystals in Sicily and Santa Clara county, Calif.

Keatite
      Keatite is a tetragonal form of silica known only from the laboratory, where it can be synthesized metastably in the presence of steam over a temperature range of 300° to 600° C and a pressure range of 400 to 4,000 bars (standard atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1,013.3 millibars, or slightly more than 1 bar, which equals 760 millimetres of mercury). It has negative thermal expansion along the a axis and positive thermal expansion along the c axis, so that the overall expansion is very low or negative.

      Coesite and stishovite are rare dense forms of silica. They are observed in nature only where quartz-bearing rocks have been severely shocked by a large meteorite impact, such as Meteor Crater in Arizona, U.S. Coesite is found in ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks such as in Dora Maira, Italy, and the Dabie Mountains, China. Coesite is made up of tetrahedrons arranged like those in feldspars. Stishovite is the densest form of silica and consists of silicon that is octahedrally coordinated with oxygen. Both coesite and stishovite have been synthesized and found to be stable only at high pressures.

Origin and occurrence
       silicon and oxygen are the two most abundant elements in the Earth's crust, in which they largely occur in combination with other elements as silicate minerals. Free silica (SiO2) appears as a mineral in crystallizing magma only when the relative abundance of SiO2 exceeds that of all other cations available to form silicates. Silica minerals thus occur only in magmas containing more than about 47 percent by weight of SiO2 and are incompatible with minerals with low cation:silica ratios—such as olivine, nepheline, or leucite. Basaltic and alkalic igneous magmas therefore can crystallize only minor amounts of silica minerals, and sometimes none are produced. The gas released from such rocks can dissolve the silica components, however, and later precipitate silica minerals upon cooling. The amount of silica minerals crystallized from magma increases with increasing silica content of magma, reaching 40 percent in some granites and rhyolites.

Solubility of silica minerals
      The solubility of silica minerals in natural solutions and gases is of great importance. The solubility of all silica minerals increases regularly with increasing temperature and pressure except in the region of 340°–550° C and 0–600 bars, where retrograde solubility occurs because of changes in the physical state of water. The solubility of silica increases in the presence of anions such as OH- and CO2-/3, which form chemical complexes with it.

      Quartz is the least soluble of the forms of silica at room temperature. In pure water its solubility at 25° C is about 6 parts per million, that of vitreous silica being at least 10 times greater. Typical temperate-climate river water contains 14 parts per million of silica, and enormous tonnages of silica are carried away in solution annually from weathering rocks and soils. The amount so removed may be equivalent to that transported mechanically in many climates. Silica dissolved in moving groundwater may partially fill hollow spheroids and precipitate crystals to form geodes (geode), or it may cement loose sand grains together to form concretions and nodules or even entire sedimentary beds into sandstone, which, when all pore space is eliminated by selective solution and nearby deposition during metamorphism, form tough, pore-free quartzite.

      Gases or solutions escaping from cooling igneous rocks or deep fractures commonly are saturated with silica and other compounds that, as they cool, precipitate quartz along their channelways to form veins. It may be fine-grained (as chalcedony), massive granular, or in coarse crystals as large as tens of tons. Most natural colourless quartz crystals, “rock crystal,” (rock crystal) were formed in this way.

      The emergence of heated silica-bearing solutions onto the surface results in rapid cooling and the loss of complexing anions. Rapid precipitation of fine-grained silica results in formation of siliceous sinter or geyserite, as at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park in the western United States.

      Quartz is mechanically resistant and relatively inert chemically during rock weathering in temperate and cold climates. Thus, it becomes enriched in river, lake, and beach sediments, which commonly contain more than one-half quartz by weight. Some strata consist almost entirely of quartz over large lateral distances and tens or hundreds of metres in thickness. Known as glass sands, these strata are important economic sources of silica for glass and chemical industries. Quartz-bearing strata are abundant in metamorphic terrains. The reincorporation of free silica into complex silicates and the solution and redeposition of silica into veins is characteristic of such terrains.

The silica phase diagram
      In diagrams of pressure-temperature fields of stability of silica minerals, stability fields are not shown for keatite, melanophlogite, opal, or the low forms of tridymite and cristobalite because they have not been demonstrated. Quartz is the stable phase of silica under the physical conditions that prevail over most of the Earth's crust. Coesite occurs at depths of about 100 kilometres (60 miles) in the Earth's mantle. Stishovite would require even greater depths of burial, and no rocks that occur on the terrestrial surface have been buried so deeply. Stishovite is reported only in a few localities that were subjected to very high pressures from meteorite impact events.

Uses
       quartz is the only natural silica mineral used in significant quantities; millions of tons are consumed annually by many industries. The sand that is an essential ingredient of concrete and mortar is largely quartz, as are the sandstone and quartzite used as building stones. Crushed sandstone and quartzite are used for road and railway construction, roofing granules, and riprap—erosion-control linings of river channels. Quartz is hard (7 on the Mohs scale) and resists fracture because it lacks easy cleavage. These properties, combined with its ready availability, lead to its use as a sandpaper abrasive and in sandblasting; for polishing and cutting glass, stone, and metal; and for providing traction on stairs, streets, and rails. Large amounts of relatively pure quartz are used in refractory products, such as insulation and firebricks, foundry molds, and electrical insulators, because of the combination of its high melting temperatures, low coefficients of expansion, inertness of the high-temperature forms of silica, and low costs.

      Relatively pure quartz is required in large tonnages as an ingredient for glass and porcelain manufacture. High purity quartz is fused to make premium grades of chemical and optical glass for which one or more of its desirable properties of low thermal expansion, high-shape stability, elasticity, low solubility, and transparency to various kinds of light can justify the greatly increased costs involved. Fibres of vitreous silica are essential for precision instruments, such as balances, galvanometers, and gravimeters. Tons of quartz of various qualities are used as raw materials for processes in which silica is not the final product. These include the production of water glass, or sodium silicate, various sols—very fine dispersions of solids in liquids—that are used as hydrophobic (water-repelling) coatings, organic silicates and silicones, silicon carbide, silicon metal, smelting flux, and alloying in metallurgy.

      Quartz and its varieties have been used since antiquity as semiprecious gems, ornamental stones, and collector's items. Precious opal, a hydrous form of silica, has been a gemstone since Roman times.

David B. Stewart William B. Simmons

Additional Reading
W.A. Deer, R.A. Howie, and J. Zussman, Rock-forming Minerals, 5 vol. (1962–63), with a 2nd ed. in progress (1978– ); Manual of Mineralogy (after James D. Dana), 20th ed. by Cornelis Klein and Cornelius S. Hurlbut, Jr. (1985); J.J. Papike and M. Cameron, “Crystal Chemistry of Silicate Minerals of Geophysical Interest,” Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics, 14(1):37–80 (1976).William B. Simmons

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • mineral — /min euhr euhl, min reuhl/, n. 1. any of a class of substances occurring in nature, usually comprising inorganic substances, as quartz or feldspar, of definite chemical composition and usually of definite crystal structure, but sometimes also… …   Universalium

  • Silica gel — Identifiers CAS number 63231 67 4  …   Wikipedia

  • Mineral CSA (brand) — Mineral CSA is a finely ground calcium silicate feedstock produced by the U.S. based company Harsco Minerals, which provides a solution for correcting acidic conditions and managing toxic metals associated with acid mine drainage (AMD). Mineral… …   Wikipedia

  • Mineral Products Association — Abbreviation MPA Formation 2009 Legal status Not for profit company Purpose/focus Trade Association for the UK minerals products industry Location …   Wikipedia

  • Mineral wool — close up. Mineral wool under micr …   Wikipedia

  • silica gel — n colloidal silica resembling coarse white sand in appearance but possessing many fine pores and therefore extremely adsorbent * * * a purified form of silica (silicon dioxide) obtained by the reaction of sodium silicate with a mineral acid; used …   Medical dictionary

  • silica — [sil′i kə] n. [ModL < L silex, flint: see SILEX] a glassy, very hard mineral, silicon dioxide, SiO2, found in a variety of forms, as in quartz, opal, chalcedony, sand, or chert …   English World dictionary

  • mineral deposit — Introduction       aggregate of a mineral in an unusually high concentration.       About half of the known chemical elements (chemical element) possess some metallic (metal) properties. The term metal, however, is reserved for those chemical… …   Universalium

  • Mineral del Monte (municipio) — Municipio de Mineral del Monte Municipio de México …   Wikipedia Español

  • Mineral — For other uses, see Mineral (disambiguation). An assortment of minerals. A mineral is a naturally occurring …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”