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Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of Earth's crust. [1] [2] [3] In mineralogy, silica (silicon dioxide, SiO 2) is usually considered a silicate mineral rather than an oxide mineral. Silica is found in nature as ...
Silicate, or silicic acid (H 4 SiO 4), is an important nutrient in the ocean. Unlike the other major nutrients such as phosphate, nitrate, or ammonium, which are needed by almost all marine plankton, silicate is an essential chemical requirement for very specific biota, including diatoms, radiolaria, silicoflagellates, and siliceous sponges.
The silica cycle plays an important role in long term global climate regulation. The global silica cycle also has large effects on the global carbon cycle through the carbonate-silicate cycle. [43] The process of silicate mineral weathering transfers atmospheric CO 2 to the hydrologic cycle through the chemical reaction displayed above. [4]
The non-silicates have great economic importance, as they concentrate elements more than the silicate minerals do. [101] The largest grouping of minerals by far are the silicates; most rocks are composed of greater than 95% silicate minerals, and over 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of these minerals. [102]
The name "silicate" is sometimes extended to any anions containing silicon, even if they do not fit the general formula or contain other atoms besides oxygen; such as hexafluorosilicate [SiF 6] 2−. Most commonly, silicates are encountered as silicate minerals.
Chemical weathering can happen by different mechanisms, depending mainly on the nature of the minerals involved. This includes solution, hydration, hydrolysis, and oxidation weathering. [13] Carbonation weathering is a particular type of solution weathering. [13] Carbonate and silicate minerals are
The carbonate that dissolved is therefore pulled out from the system while the silica precipitated recrystallizes into various silicate minerals, depending on the silica phase. [17] The solubility of silica strongly depends on the temperature and pH value of the environment [ 3 ] where pH9 is the controlling value. [ 1 ]
Quartz is, therefore, classified structurally as a framework silicate mineral and compositionally as an oxide mineral. Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar. [10] Quartz exists in two forms, the normal α-quartz and the high-temperature β-quartz, both of which are chiral. The transformation ...