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Most rocks contain silicate minerals, compounds that include silica tetrahedra in their crystal lattice, and account for about one-third of all known mineral species and about 95% of the earth's crust. [6] The proportion of silica in rocks and minerals is a major factor in determining their names and properties. [7]
In rocks, some mineral species and groups are much more abundant than others; these are termed the rock-forming minerals. The major examples of these are quartz, the feldspars, the micas, the amphiboles, the pyroxenes, the olivines, and calcite; except for the last one, all of these minerals are silicates. [39]
Sylvinite – Sedimentary rock made of a mechanical mixture of sylvite and halite; Tillite – Till which has been indurated or lithified by burial; Travertine – Form of limestone deposited by mineral springs; Tufa – Porous limestone rock formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of ambient temperature water
Types of igneous rocks with other essential minerals are very rare, but include carbonatites, which contain essential carbonates. [17] In a simplified compositional classification, igneous rock types are categorized into felsic or mafic based on the abundance of silicate minerals in the Bowen's Series. Rocks dominated by quartz, plagioclase ...
Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a large sandstone formation in Northern Territory, Australia.. Sedimentary rocks can be subdivided into four groups based on the processes responsible for their formation: clastic sedimentary rocks, biochemical (biogenic) sedimentary rocks, chemical sedimentary rocks, and a fourth category for "other" sedimentary rocks formed by impacts, volcanism, and other minor processes.
This is a list of minerals which have Wikipedia articles. Minerals are distinguished by various chemical and physical properties. Differences in chemical composition and crystal structure distinguish the various species .
Rocks with greater than 90% felsic minerals can also be called leucocratic, [4] from the Greek words for white and dominance. Felsite is a petrologic field term used to refer to very fine-grained or aphanitic , light-colored volcanic rocks which might be later reclassified after a more detailed microscopic or chemical analysis.
Silicification, the replacement of the minerals by crystalline or crypto-crystalline silica, is most common in felsic rocks, such as rhyolite, but is also found in serpentine, etc. Kaolinization is the decomposition of the feldspars, which are the most common minerals in igneous rocks, into kaolin (along with quartz and other clay minerals); it ...