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Paleoclimatology (thesaurus)

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study material > mineral > silicate > silicate mineral

Preferred term

silicate mineral  

Definition

  • 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. In mineralogy, silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) is usually considered a silicate mineral rather than an oxide mineral. Silica is found in nature as the mineral quartz, and its polymorphs. On Earth, a wide variety of silicate minerals occur in an even wider range of combinations as a result of the processes that have been forming and re-working the crust for billions of years. These processes include partial melting, crystallization, fractionation, metamorphism, weathering, and diagenesis. (Adapted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicate_mineral)

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http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/QX8-NHZHSD5H-4

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