Feldspars are the most ubiquitous minerals in the Earth’s crust. They are unique dating targets, in the fields of luminescence and K-Ar/Ar-Ar geochronology, as mineral grains in sediments and rocks. Both as grains of sediment and as grains in rocks.
Feldspars are compositionally symbolized as MT 4 O 8 where M are K, Na, and Ca and T are Si and Al. End-members composition for alkali feldspars are (K, Al) Si 3 O 8 (microcline, sanidine) and (Na, Al) Si 3 O 8 (albite). Plagioclases represent a continuous solid solution with end-members composition between albite and anorthite (CaAl 2 Si 2 O 8 ).
Feldspars are known as framework silicates, in which corner-sharing (Al, Si) O 4 tetrahedra form crankshaft-like chains, assembled along their a axis. Cross-linking generates large coordination sites occupied by the charge-compensating cations (Fig. 1).
Idealized feldspar structure, modified from Nesse (2012). M sites are locations of K, Na, or Ca; T sites are locations for either Al or...
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Bibliography
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Lamothe, M. (2013). Feldspars. In: Rink, W., Thompson, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_123-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_123-1
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